United We Stand
by NyteGale
Summary: The third in the Billie and Wolf trilogy. Aproximatley 3 years after the events of Wolf's Keeper; Star Wolf must step up when they find that Star Fox is in a disheveled and divided state, at the same time Wolf must keep his own team from coming apart at the seams. Can he mend Star Fox as well as pull everyone together to save Lylat and clear their own names?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all! I know I had promised this story in what now feels like eons ago but... Well I honestly didn't know how to proceed. But fear not I am back and this trilogy will go out with one hell of a bang. **

**First thing is, most chapters will probably be longer than this one; however I wanted to get the story published so excuse all of the un-awnsered questions this first chapter will leave you with. Second of all special thanks to Kusa for his use of an OC. And finally everyone just review, lemme know if I have the same crowd from the other two books back, or if I have some new faces. Thanks and I promise to be as prompt as I can with updates my Duckies. Enjoy.**

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><p>CHAPTER 1<p>

"Target locked." Came a smooth voice throughout the Red Fangs cockpit.

"Alright I'm goin' in." Said the large grey lupine within un-strapping his safety buckle.

"Is that wise? The others aren't in position-"

But Wolf didn't wait for Panther to finish speaking before his canopy opened with a 'SHHHH'; and then with practiced timing and a certain amount of grace one would not expect from someone so tall Wolf's body sailed through the air in a slow back flip. And his frame then sliced down through the air as he bent his knees into his chest and came crashing through the skylight of a skyscraper. He landed on an expensive looking red carpet with a plop, and kept his gaze downward as glass fell all around him like tinkling wind chimes.

"Wow…" His deep voice began as he slowly looked up at the security guards surrounding him in panic. "Security here stinks…"

Then with a long, smug grin he squeezed his fists until he heard a click from the large black gloves covering his claws all the way up to his forearm; they pulsed to life with energy. A painted Labrador standing before him came at him with a nightstick and a battle cry. Wolf instantly rose up to his feet and sent a punch right into his chest; with a loud cry of pain the Lab flew back onto the floor and contorted like he was having a seizure. He had just taken a large amount of electricity from Wolf's glove.

"Next." Wolf said without missing a beat and turned to meet the other three guards behind him; with a roadhouse kick from his right leg he sent the Golden Retriever down with a bloody mouth.

And then he proceeded to send his open right hand into the face of a Golden Eagle who had nearly brought down his nightstick on Wolf's head. Wolf gripped his face in his large hand as the avians body seized with the electric current until smoke arose from the ruffled feathers of his face. He released the eagle at the same moment he gripped the wrist of the last guard with his left hand; just before he could land a strike on Wolf. All Wolf had to do was grip the Chocolate Lab and watch his body contort with pain.

"Boy they really should have given you guys guns." The tall lupine chuckled as he tossed the canine aside.

Looking down at the smoking bodies piled around the red rug before him he squeezed his fists tightly once more, until the same click could be heard and his gloves once again became mere fabric. And then he turned himself around and headed to the huge white desk all the way at the end of the room; he clicked a finger onto the empty surface, and with a pleasant little tone the top of the desk lit up like a computer screen. After a feminine computers voice said 'Welcome' he moved his hands all around looking through the files saved on the desk.

Wolf's ear flicked as he heard something pat on the carpet behind him; he quickly turned as he heard laser fire. With a smirk cracking its way across his face he saw the Golden Retriever he had kicked fall over before him. Then his gaze moved to the large double doorway where there stood a curvaceous hooded figure.

In a black cat suit that hugged everything in just the right way, accompanied by a red flowing scarf with a hood attached in the center, half of a familiar face was visible from under the shadow it was cascading down over her head. The white tail of the individual swished as she holstered her gun in a brown leather combat belt hugging her hips; and then the black steel toed boots stepped forward as the brown laces swished in a pattern similar to her tail.

"You're late; as usual…" Wolf gruffed to his wife as she pulled her hood back over her short black locks; revealing her twitchy white ears.

"Good to see you too dear." Billie said with a wink.

She glided across the massive room taking in the sight of the guards lying about, either smoking or with foam at their mouths. The room itself was quite a lovely sight however; on Billie's side was a luxurious looking pair of double doors, the crimson carpeted floor led all the way to Wolf's end where the lonely white desk was pressed up against the wall, with a swirling wooden carving that matched the doors above it. On either side of the room the walls were little more than windows up to the ceiling, letting the light stream in accompanied by the light from the now broken skylight. But now was not the time to stop and smell the roses; Star Wolf was on the clock.

"I see you are enjoying your new toy." She said lightly taking up space directly in front of him.

"I can't ever seem to resist making use of your tech." He shot back to her with a flex of his fingers. "Where's Leon?"

"Still in a dogfight with the cops we distracted so you and Panther could press forward…" She rolled her eyes.

"Thought Panther was keeping them distracted around the tower…" Wolf said turning back to the desk and letting his fingers quickly glide over the surface as his eyes followed.

"Oh, you know him; he can't leave a dogfight until everything is dead… Even when I said to break."

"He's getting worse lately…" Wolf muttered.

Billie opened her mouth to speak but at that moment they heard an explosion outside.

Billie flipped out her red lens and Wolf touched an index finger to the side of his e-patch.

"Positions." Wolf said over their private chat line.

"Right above you; I'm taking quite the beating out here…" Panther said in a velveteen tone seemingly free of fear.

"Where's Leon?" Billie asked looking up through the shattered skylight.

"He's not with you?" Panther said as another explosion was heard from outside, rattling the walls of the building.

Billie let out a long groan, and Wolf pulled a plastic disk case out of his vest and slid the disk within into a drive.

"Panther can you buy me about three more minutes?" Wolf gruffed in annoyance.

"Not alone." He returned quickly

"Billie-" Wolf started as he turned around.

"I'm on it." She cut him off summoning her baby to her location with her headgear.

Her golden necklace glinted in the sunlight as she blew Wolf a kiss in a sassy pose. Then unzipping the sleeves of her cat suit down to her elbows, her wrists erupted in black and she flew up through the skylight in a swirling circle of Shadow Lace.

"You're getting good at that one; almost too good…" Wolf smirked looking out of the windowed wall to his right seeing her baby do a barrel role after she had landed in it from above; cops close on her tail.

He turned back to the screen on the wall and watched the disc burning at a glacial pace.

"Come on…" He muttered impatiently.

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><p>"Where the FUCK is Leon?!" Billie said after what seemed like more than three minutes later.<p>

She then took several shots to the right side of her ship and sent her baby into a downward spiral. Hot on her tail the slew of police model Arwings zoomed down after her.

"Woooolf?" She said with an overbearing amount of annoyance in her tone.

"Just a minute!" He snapped back trying to call Leon.

Billie hit her gravity break right over the highway; and several cars screeched to a stop, sending the ones behind into a pile-up of flipping, sparking destruction. As she pulled back up and hit full speed in a straight shot just above the highway one of the Arwings that had been on her tail slammed with the horrible scraping of twisted metal onto the highway. Droves of panicked pedestrians fled the scene, and many other onlookers watched the chase from inside of the buildings as Billie began to weave her way through the maze of skyscrapers.

"What are you doing?" Panther questioned as he made another loop around the building Wolf was in, and then headed downward into the city after her.

"They won't open fire among the onlookers!" She said pulling up and looping backwards; with the police now finally in front of her she matched their speed.

"But that doesn't mean we can't." She said opening her turrets upon them in hails of rhythmic explosions.

"What I wouldn't do for a smash ball…" Panther said making himself scarce among the buildings.

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><p>"YES!" Wolf cheered as the disk ejected.<p>

He proceeded to replace it back into the case and stuff it into his vest when his ears heard a deep rumble of a voice behind him:

"Well, well… Thought if I followed little red riding hood I'd run into the big bad Wolf…"

Wolf turned to face the owner of said voice; a narrow pair of cold grey eyes looked back at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Wolf snuffed looking dejectedly at the seemingly mirror image.

The one standing before him was a large black Wolf with just a bit of white around his nose. He had the same enraged face that Wolf himself sported from time to time; but he looked much younger, Wolf guessed he had to have been in his late 20s at most. But he sure was dressed for a fight that much was clear; Wolf recognized the military issue combat boots and green cargo pants tucked into them. He was also sporting a Cornerian military issue jacket over his blaster proof second skin shirt, but it looked old and worn with either time or just a variety of fights.

"So where did little red hood go?" The large ebony lupine asked chewing on a lollipop stick.

Wolf just shrugged, and fingered his pistol.

"Damn, was hoping to haul in more than one Star Wolf member… but I guess the leader will do. You are worth the most after all Wolf O'Donnell."

'Great, another bounty hunter.' Wolf thought. Since the incident at The Cage three years ago where Billie saved his life; all of Lylat had been recovering from an economic depression due to the accumulated damage caused by Aparoid invasion; in the grip of which his line of work was very generous. However that was a double edged sword in that bounty hunters became more and more eager by the day to get him for the absurd amount of credits on his head. Wolf loved his work, but three years dealing with both strong and weak bounty hunters they had all blurred together in his mind and become little more than a day to day annoyance.

"Look as much as I'd love to hang around and see if you could give me a good fight kid, I'm in a bit of a rush today." Wolf said dismissively taking a step forward.

"I'm sorry, you've mistaken me for someone who cares." Said the bounty hunter slinging a six round shotgun off of his back and aiming it forward.

"Whoa… that's a bit old fashioned aint' it?" Wolf said slowly putting his hands up.

"Gets the job done better than most people care to think. Case in point." He chuckled at the seemingly surrendering Wolf. And with that the still nameless bounty hunter stepped forward slowly across the great hall of a room.

"Is that right? I might have tah look into that myself…" Wolf kept on baiting him as his left thumb, barely noticeable tapped on the side of his e-patch. This kid was clearly a rookie, thinking he could simply approach a target face to face like that.

Step by patient step the black wolf grew closer; but then he saw it; the smallest of tells as Wolf's poker face tugged up into half of a smirk. He stopped in his tracks, Wolf broke out into a toothy grin as his tail swished behind him, the bounty hunter aimed and fired, and in the flash that was an instant Wolf's right hand moved to his back and he became surrounded by a pinkish white energy barrier.

At the moment the tiny round bullets cascaded with the barrier only to deflect outward and away, Wolf made a mental note to thank Billie for buying the technology from that toad he hated so much. Of course Wolf had tinkered with it himself, thinking it was lacking something to be desired as it was. And as off thrown as the kid was by the blinking shield, he was definitely not expecting what happened in the next instant; he turned to his right to see a ship shattering the massive window and barreling into the room.

The Red Fang's canopy was slowly opening as it blurred in between the two lupines, Wolf leapt upwards as the bounty hunter leapt back to avoid getting decapitated by the wing of the vessel. With Wolf quickly plopping himself into the cockpit, he and his ship shattered on through the windows directly on the other side of the room, and were gone into the blue. The bounty hunter pulled himself up and swore under his breath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well here you go my duckies! Chapter two, just for you... whoah that rhymes. Anywho; I suppose if I was a bit less lazy I could have made up a whole culture of Lylatian music... But; come on what do I look like someone who isn't lazy? Anyways; for the song in Billie's ship I simply put in the real name of the song if you care to look it up, I thought it fit very well for her little attitude there. Just imagine that all human bands and musicians are Lylatian now. Enjoy and Reveiw!**

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><p>CHAPTER 2<p>

"Well, I wasn't expecting that…" Wolf gruffed over their line as his Wolfen screeched across the sky to Billie's location.

"What; how bad security was around what the old owl wanted?" Billie retorted in a rapid barrel rolling arc over what was left of the police on their tails.

"No… that bounty hunter…" Wolf said thinking back on looking into his eyes, how cold and hardened they were.

"What bounty hunter?" Panther interrupted not liking the idea of jail time.

"It's nothing…" Wolf grumbled arming his turrets.

Billie's baby sliced through the air in between the buildings that seemed to loom down over the mess as if they were interested in seeing the action. They were almost intimidating; it felt as though if they so chose they could simply outstretch a cold stone hand to halt Star Wolf's progress. Then Billie checked her rear camera screen only to see four Arwings still in hot pursuit.

"Okay… nothing I can't handle." Billie said slowing herself a bit, like a tease. And then she flipped on her music list from the small computer screen looking out at her from her dash. A good song, Believe Me by Fort Minor rang out through the small space she was shelled in.

"Not very classical; but that'll do." She said gripping her clear plastic half wheel. "Let's play."

At that moment she pumped her gravity breaks hard; this caused the first two vessels behind her to collide in the air as they tried to turn away, but they were simply moving too fast. With a swerving, sickly sort of noise one collided into a building finishing with a boom and the other simply swerved down before quickly regaining control and pulling back up. Billie was already making her way up however, a bit higher from where she had been she made a hard right around the corner of a building.

"When will they learn?" She smirked to herself; and then Panther's vessel took her place with a howl of engines as he and she crossed paths.

For just a split second she looked to her left and saw the cats golden orbs winking back to her. Panther opened fire on the line behind Billie immediately after that, causing them to scramble. The Black Rose made a straight slingshot right through the middle of the police force cluster.

Now it was true that because of the massive recession the police force had suffered; truly taking any applicant and giving them very little training; but you still had to admire their spirit. Particularly when you took into account their average salary; they were damn persistent.

"Well that's it for me boys and girls; I'm heading out of atmosphere while I'm sure my hull will still hold up through it." Panther purred over the line; and then his ships form made a screechy b-line for the wide open sky.

"And then there were two." Billie chimed to her husband. It was then she realized she had no idea where his ship was.

And the next instant his voice cut into her thoughts: "Pull up!"

With a slight jump she did as he said; making her way over the visible skyline, she was out in the open, her little ship exposed under the pastel work of the sky. Then loud shots rang out behind her, making a sharp U-turn she saw the Red Fang had been positioned behind her; high up and ambushed the trio on her tail with a downward assault of plasma fire. In what seemed like a flash two of the Arwings went down; one had exploded after the pilot ejected and the other was hurdling towards the ground leaving a thick trail of ebony smoke in its wake.

Wolf looked down at the pedestrians in their panicked masses moving out of the crash zone of the government vessel. He narrowed his eyes at the damage below… Large as the bounty on his head was; he hated when there were casualties outside of whoever had directly attacked him or his team. He swore under his breath at the fact it was even bothering him at all, not at a time like this. But still; it did bother him, noticeably.

He flew straight on at the last of the Arwings; and the officer inside flew directly back at him. Both pilots hit their thrusters hard now; Wolf angry at himself for letting this simple pick up job get so out of hand; and the German Shepherd inside the police vehicle angry at that good for nothing cop killing scumbag hurdling towards him. Wolf snarled inside of his cockpit; his large fists clenched in rage over his Wolfen's wheel, and then it became a scream as they drew closer and closer over the city.

"Wolf, what are you doing?!" Billie cried trying to rush to his rescue.

But he couldn't even hear her; he was seeing red. She couldn't believe what she was seeing; neither pilot was letting up, it was too hard to turn at those speeds they were heading for a crash.

"Well…" A familiar voice rang out snapping Wolf out of his temper. "Someone should give that cop a raise."

In the next moment Wolf slammed down on his gravity break as everything grew bright before him; the police cruiser had exploded, and the shape was recognizable. It had been hit with a bomb. As the Red Fang went down Wolf pulled up on the wheel with all his strength; getting it back under control.

"Oh so much for that raise…" A snide laugh rang out from the attacker.

"Who the hell are you?" Billie said to the black wolf on their chat screens.

"I might ask the same of you, because DAMN." The grey eyed wolf said looking down at her with a purring noise.

"Persistent little fuck aren't you." Wolf said heading towards his ship; it was strange, the model almost looked like a Wolfen actually. The color scheme was earth tone however; and the wings had different frame placement. But the thrusters were identical to Wolf's, along with the shape of its center.

"Wolf who is this kid?" Billie said circling around the two, making sure she wasn't a sitting duck.

"My name is Zack honey buns; you must be…" He trailed off looking at the wanted poster on his screen. "Billie… O'Donnell?"

Zack's black ears bent back in irritation as he looked back to the angry Wolf taking up space in front of him; they were suspended over the city, pretty high into the stratosphere; everything below them had a bluish tinge to it.

"I hope you two are brother and sister… cousin's maybe?" He pried like a little smart ass.

"That's my wife you little piss ant." Wolf snarled over the line.

"Well, I gota say I envy you then O'Donnell; how often do you get to tap that?"

"Excuse me?!" Billie said like a shriek.

After listening to this kid talk Wolf was starting to think maybe he was younger than 20 after all. Not only his cracking voice that seemed like it wanted to be deep but wasn't quite there yet, but also the way he spoke; like one of those air-headed teenagers Panther would watch get into pillow fights on the internet. It was his eyes that made him seem older… Something among seasoned warriors of any variety; their eyes were all the same. You could just tell that they had seen some shit.

"Look, as much as I'd like to stay here and give you the ass kicking your parents obviously should have; we should get out of here before the damn military is called in." Billie finished by addressing Wolf.

But he didn't budge; he sat in his cockpit glaring at his opponent. This kid was tough as nails. Wolf didn't know how to explain it, he just knew. And he wanted a damn challenging fight from him; it wasn't often he got to face off another lupine. Hell the closest he could ever get was McCloud; and he had gone and dropped off the face of fucking Lylat all together. Had been quite a long time since McCloud had given him his fix, and as his tail twitched behind him he began to recognize the old itch.

"Billie, go find Leon and get outa here." Wolf said as his black lips tugged up into that old smirk he would wear over his rows of sharp teeth.

"Are you crazy? We have the package and he's a bounty hunter; let's get out of here." She pleaded.

"Humph…" Zack said with a smirk painted over his muzzle that like Wolf's meant; let's get brutal.

"Wolf!" Billie pleaded again.

But both of the lupines were getting their vessels into gear; lord knows that seemingly all men enjoyed archaic means of entertainment.

"With a roll of her eyes she turned towards the bounty hunter and armed her turrets."

"Don't you dare." Wolf shot over the chat.

"Wolf, it's not time for one of your little recreational fights."

"It's my fight!" Wolf snarled.

"I'm growing old here!" Zack said hurdling towards Billie and opening fire.

Billie gasped, and pulled down; but she wasn't quick enough to avoid a few shots and scrapes.

"You bastard!" Wolf yelled, he was this little snots opponent, and he goes to bait Wolf in by attacking his teammate. This kid may be tough but he knew nothing of the rules of engagement; "Allow me to enlighten you." Wolf hissed as he sent a barrage of shots at the little prick.

"**There** he is!" Zack cheered as they rang on towards each other, each effectively evading the others heavy fire.

But when they reached in the middle, the Zack pup went out of his way to ram himself against Wolf's ship; effectively damaging both. Wolf's ears were then met with the black lupines laughter, this kid had no regard for his own safety, Wolf didn't either but he was less up front about it in start of a brawl.

"You son of a bitch!" Billie said seeing what he had done.

"Someone call my name?" A twisted voice cut down through the action.

"Leon!" Billie said watching the Rainbow Delta cut sky overhead.

"Where the fuck you been?!" Wolf growled.

"Oh doing this and that." Was all Leon said as a straight laser emerged from the tip of his ship; effectively cutting the wings off of the left side of Zack's greenish ship.

"The hell?" Zack said as alarms began going off in his cockpit.

"Gahhh!" The alarms blared out with their annoying and shrill sounds as he fell down to the Cornerian surface. The circling made him dizzy, and blood rushed to his head as his muscles gave everything they had to try and stabilize his fall.

"Nice shot…" Billie said watching him spin downward, being pulled to the planet by the fiery hand of gravity.

"Tch… well that's one pain in the ass dealt with." Wolf gruffed at his team. "Let's move out!"

Billie looked at Leon nervously; he was wearing a twisted smile that he liked to put on after assassinations. Then she looked to Wolf's profile, he seemed like he was brooding on several things; letting his temper fester like he often did. And then the Star Wolf remnants pulled up into space. As the blue fell away from their vision replaced by the cold, and quiet blackness of space no words were exchanged; just an eerie silence.

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><p>Billie stretched her arms up and worked a kink out her shoulder while rotating her neck around as her boots met with the metal floor of the flight deck in their Fichinan base. The Red Fang and the Rainbow Delta came to rest aside the Black Rose and her own baby as she let out a heavy sigh; she was completely spent from the hours of flight time that had scraped away at her that day.<p>

She turned her head at the sound of boots quickly marching across the metal with rapid tings being sent her way. What she saw was less than encouraging; as Wolf hocked his electro gloves off of his clawed hands and down to the floor he quickly proceeded to grab Leon by the collar.

"You wanna tell me what that was back there?!" he said shaking the reptile.

"What, what was? I was simply having a bit of fun with the spares; the three of you had the rest covered." Leon said with the smile of his recent memory still on his green face.

"That entire job fell apart; because you weren't in position!" Wolf spat at the crazed lizard.

Billie quickly jogged over to Wolf's side: "Stop it!" she cried grabbing Wolf's wrists.

She then positioned herself between the two, holding Wolf's now empty hands in her own.

"Get outa my way Billie." Wolf said still staring at Leon.

"You are right; Leon shouldn't have toyed with the cops so much. But ripping him to shreds won't change anything." She said in a soft tone up to him, trying to cool him off.

"It'll make me feel better." He said without missing a beat.

"What is going on?" Panther walked out onto the deck from the kitchen.

Leon began to laugh a bit at Wolf's rage; still awaiting some sort of punishment.

"Wolf go sit down, and cool it." She said pushing her hands down on his chest. And before he could even argue he felt himself being pushed away; he looked down to see a Shadow Laced hand over his torso holding him away from Leon.

"And you…" She said turning to the lizard with her blacked out eyes. "You have to learn some self-control! We really needed you in there."

"I don't see what the big deal is; we got the package didn't we? And we all made it out alive."

"Well yes but-" But she was cut off by a shrill Leon.

"So what's the problem?"

"Well aside from you not covering me like you were assigned…" Panther said looking at his trashed ship.

"Did you see the collateral damage?!" Wolf yelled from the spot he was still pinned. The images of the pedestrians ran through his mind as he said this.

"He's right… not that Panther can place blame solely on Leon… but your actions caused things to get a little out of hand for such a small job." As his smooth voice filled the air, he took up space next to Billie looking at his reptilian comrade.

"Well I can…" Wolf snuffed from the other side of the room.

"Really? Because I think you are being a hypocrite." Billie said releasing him from her large Laced hand.

"Excuse me girly?" Wolf said brushing his arms off.

"We had a clear shot to get out of there before Leon even showed up; and you went and had a freak out on that cop."

Wolf rolled his eyes.

"And the cherry on top was you deciding to stay and play with that bounty hunter." She said taking more aggressive stance.

"What?" Wolf snuffed.

"Oh don't give me that crap Wolf. I have shared a bed with you for over three years now, I know that look; that predatory look you get when you want a challenge."

Wolf leaned his head back with another eye roll and let out a long breath of annoyance.

"You two…" She said looking to Leon who's scales had taken on somewhat of a purple hue.

"I know it has been a while since we saw Star Fox but… You both need to find another way to vent your frustrations! Face it, we haven't heard anything in the news about them lately… I think they are done with this." She said making a guesture with her arms.

And she was starting to piss Wolf off… Having someone around who knew you well enough to call you out on your crap like this; he was getting tired of being put in his place.

"Well methinks it's something different." Leon said with a cross of his skinny arms.

All three of them stared at him now.

"I think Wolf is getting soft again… just like three years ago." Leon said jabbing into Wolf with his listless stare.

"Watch it." Wolf said with the only warning he would give anyone; just the first.

"Without that Star Fox around you never face a real challenge anymore, you losing your edge…" Leon said strumming one of his knives. And with the last word, he made way to leave the room. But Leon too… did miss dishing out death threats to that annoyingly challenging blue bird.

"It has been getting a bit grinding..." Panther said thinking back on what they had done over the last year to get by. "I think we all need a reboot." He concluded turning to his boss.

"I'm going to drop the package." Wolf said walking towards his Wolfen.

"I'll go with you." Billie chimed.

"No." He turned and looked at her over his shoulder with his good eye.

"I want to be alone."

Billie didn't like that way he looked at her when he said it; his eye was narrow and sharp. Panther and Billie stood and watched as he left.

"He just needs to cool off…" Panther said looking at her face.

She looked worn out… almost a bit sad.

"Yeah, he's needed that a lot lately." She said picking up the gloves he had tossed to the ground.

"It's not you dear. It's Leon…"

Billie looked at him from the side of her eye as she held the gloves tightly in her palms.

"For as long as I have known that big grey dope; he has been nervous about having Leon as a comrade…"

"Why? I know they were in Venom together; he's been okay this long."

"Leon… his mental state is what a professional would call a ticking time bomb. Much like Wolf's temper…"

As Panther said these things, Billie realized how little Wolf had openly told her about his history. She had seen a handful of his own memories… but what if there was stuff he had danced around. He never did openly tell her about his parents or upbringing. But he had made special care to avoid talk of Venom since he discovered she knew James.

'Trust your instincts.' James's voice rung through her head like a bell.

"I feel like… something bad is happening… Right now." She said each word slowly; Panther looked on at her with his assessing cats stare.

"We will cross that bridge when we come to it; like we always have." He said placing a friendly hand over her black shoulder plates.

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><p>Billie stayed up waiting on Wolf's return in her cockpit; she let some smooth and slow song play out trying to calm her nerves… But she couldn't shake this feeling something bad was headed in her direction. Her bare legs hung over the side while the top of her body was in a relaxed pose in the seat. Memories of words said rang through her head, it's not like her and Wolf always got along just gravy… She remembered an argument they had just after their first year together.<p>

It was Wolf's last brawl with Fox; he had come back home covered in gashes and he hadn't told anyone where he had been. He simply snuck back into the base and tried to give himself medical attention; Billie had heard some noise and gone to check on it, she found him in the bathroom trying to stop the bleeding:

"What the hell? What have you done!?" She cried and ran up to him.

"It's nothin'." He said taking a drag from an e-cig with a shaky hand.

Billie stopped the bleeding with temporary Shadow Lace bandages. One of the things she learned to do during her bounty hunting years was fixing injuries temporarily. She cleaned his bloody fur and soldered his larger wounds closed. He had yelled in such a hoarse voice with every burn she set into his flesh. Watching him nearly destroy himself like that, she cried while she was doing it.

"Hey no tears…" He said lifting her chin up with his thumb and index finger.

"You are going to kill yourself… and one day I won't be able to save you…" She said looking into his bad eye; the blackness still clouding it from when she had pulled him from the other side.

"Nah, just flesh wounds Tish." Wolf had taken to calling her Trisha, or Tish when she was unhappy.

She had stayed up the entire night that time… watching him sleep. When he awoke was when the real fight began:

"You can't keep doing this to yourself…" She said looking down over his bandaged body.

"McCloud's friend beak face showed up uninvited… I'll be ready next time." He gruffed pulling himself up.

"Why can't you just let this thing with Fox go?" She said helplessly looking at his back.

He didn't answer; he just reached around for his clothing.

"You didn't even tell us where you were; what if you had died?" She pleaded walking up to him.

"I'm not gonna die yet." He said quickly, and then he grabbed his side in pain.

"How can you possibly know that?"

"I know!" He growled frustrated at the pain.

"Why can't you ever give me a straight answer?! You can't even tell me what stupid thing it is that drives you to this madness."

"YOU WANNA KNOW HOW I FEEL?!" He yelled like thunder. And then he gripped her arms so hard it hurt and pushed her down the crisp covers and sheets.

She looked up at him with her doe eyes; he could feel her body shaking in his grip as he loosened it.

"I'm hurt…" He said not meeting her gaze anymore. Instead he sunk his head down to her neck and let his lips rest against it, breathing her in.

"My body is hurt… but it will heal. And then I will fight on like I always have."

Billie stopped feeling afraid and listened to his deep voice coo lowly in her ear:

"Except these days I never gotta face it alone." He laid a kiss on her neck before rising back up.

Before she knew it her hands had stopped him; he looked down at her face with his bad eye closed for a better view; she just kept silently staring up to him at a loss for words.

As much as she hated what this man could put her through; she loved him. And as much as she would deny it; all the way to her grave... this part of him really turned her on. And Wolf could pick up on that anywhere, they stayed locked up in their room until noon that day. Caught in small intervals of sleeping, and passionate sex. A few days after that fact, she decided it would be best if they kept about four medical kits throughout the base. After all, it's not as if they could simply go to a hospital being who they were.

Billie slid her fingers up and down her necklace as she waited on Wolf. She laughed thinking back on that argument now. All the strife would inevitably fade into a fond memory...

"I'll always wait for you…" She whispered looking down at her necklace.

As it glinted in the pale light she heard something. She pulled herself upwards and saw the form of a ship coming down into the bay. Billie stood in her cockpit as recognition came to her mind… that was not a Wolfen. But she did know it:

It was the Cloud-Runner.

Billie stood out on the large metal deck as it touched down; and then powered down before her sending a gust of wind her way. A singular blue vixen emerged from the opened canopy.

"Billie?" She called down in a wobbly voice.

"Miss Krystal; what are you doing here..?" Billie didn't actually know her all that well, but from the few dogfights they had gotten into together they did chat just a little; and even saved each other a few times.

"How did you find this place?" Billie asked stunned. The whole reason they chose this mountain was because no one would come looking here out on the verge of the middle of nothing but frikkin' cold.

"You…" Krystal said jogging up to her face to face.

"Your thoughts just… stick out at me from anywhere… and I-I didn't know where else I could go…" She said her lower lip trembling.

The fur on her cheeks was damp as if she had been crying.

"What about Fox, and Star Fox?" Billie said still trying to piece this together.

But Krystal simply broke out sobbing and hugged the confused Billie as she wept. Billie put her arms around her and comforted her best she could, still baffled.

"Grew your hair out huh?" She nervously said to the pretty blue fox as she stroked her shoulder lengthened blue locks.

"Fox…*hic*" She started as best she could in between her sobbing

"He dumped me*sob*; and then drove me out. *sob*"

Billie stood there in shock, and with no words to rebuttal with she just kept holding Krystal in a friendly bit of comfort.

* * *

><p><strong>DRAMA BOMB!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello my duckies. This chapter is pretty self explanatory; so review and all that. One of my lovelies asked me to tell them my thoughts on Wolf not being in SSB4; so if you don't care you can just skip this rant... And yes it is a rant. Wolf was cut purely for the fact that his fan base was small among avid smash bros. players. He was not a clone! And don't let anyone tell you different! And yet Nintendo decided that he should be cut to make room for Lucina the clone... and Dr. Mario the clone... and Dark Pit... the clone. And the worst two of all; THE FUCKING DUCK HUNT DOG AND THE WII FIT TRAINER. I am so royally pissed at Nintendo right now words cannot express! Truly... I have been an avid fan of SSB since the days of the Nintendo 64. And for all of us who came to know Wolf from Brawl; to truly master him: found that he was an unstoppable force. In fact many of my friends refuse to play Brawl with me for this reason... as Wolf after becoming my favorite quickly became my only. Will I invest in SSB4 for their brutal cut of an original character... maybe. Until I learned that they decided to give Fox a color change to make him look like Wolf. To me, this was a slap in the face: there can only be one. And trying to make it alright by dolling Fox up a bit is just... GRRRRRR. So will I be spending money on this game... not for a while, the wound is still too fresh. And if they had decided to add some better characters I may not have hurt this deeply... (Not that Mega Man and Robin are without their charms) But I cannot believe they would cut one of the few villains of smash bros. to make room for Clone-a-palooza... It was a cold and bitter slap in the face. And Smash bros. will have to pull something out of its ass to win its way back into my good graces... My dear O'Donnell you shall be deeply missed. That is all I have to say on this subject.**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER 3<p>

"I want to be alone." That was what Wolf had said before piloting out of there like a bat out of hell.

The space drifter shot through the emptiness like an arrow and listened to the great silence that came with the cosmos. Fichina shrank into the black behind the Red Fang; and the pilot within felt his blood pressure slowly dropping at the feeling of his vessels speed. He finally came to a slow as the Smuggler's Rock ice patches came into view, and then ran is long clawed fingers through his hair with a sigh.

"This was just a stupid job…" He mumbled lowly to himself.

But still he couldn't believe the way everything had fallen to pieces so quickly. The image of a pedestrian who couldn't escape the path of one of the Arwings he downed ran across his brain. He didn't understand why this was still bothering him so; it's not as if it was a mother with her baby… it was just some guy. Unfamiliar feelings began to bubble from within his center up into his head, giving him a sickly sort of feeling.

"All in the name of piracy huh?" He said taking the clear disc case out of his vest and looking at the rainbow patterns dance across it with the bluish glow that everything he saw with his bad eye took in.

In fact the only reason Star Wolf had even agreed to the job was because the pay was damn good for a dead drop pick up routine. He was pulled back down into the present by the maze of massive slowly drifting ice shards before him. Carefully making his way through to the round icy fortress within the cluster he focused his mind back into business mode.

* * *

><p>His large boots made crunching and sloshing noises beneath him as he walked along the snowy metal street. He moved at a relaxed pace with his hands in his pockets, the large hunks of ice shone brilliantly in the light of the artificial planet. Not that you could call it a planet; not even the size of a moon it was more of an asteroid really. Because it had no sun to rely on the streets always looked as though they were doused in the night, as all of the artificial light bounced off the shimmering ice; pieces of the shards would shed from time to time and create a snowing effect here and there. He sighed out some foggy visible breath while turning a corner, up some stairs that had been carved directly into the ice; they were scored deeply to prevent slipping.<p>

"Lord O'Donnell." A creepy little lizard said from under his hood as Wolf passed by.

These days Wolf and his team were respected at the Smuggler's Rock as if it were another Sargasso zone. Wolf nodded half heartedly in the reptiles general direction continued to make his way through the lines of stairs; like being lost in an Escher painting. But eventually he found his way to the targets location, a small bolted door with a flickering light dangling above it. He knocked three times with the knuckle of his index finger, and as the door opened it almost sounded like it was protesting the intrusion with a screech.

But then a gnarled and raspy voice emerged from the darkness: "ENTER."

Wolf took two steps in and the door eased closed behind him. In the dim light he saw a massive pair of yellow eyes staring fixedly at him.

"Lord O'Donnell, did he find it for us?" The eyes said flipping on some lights.

Wolf winced for a second as his eyes adjusted; and then took in the form of an old hunched over horned owl. The same owl Billie had gotten this contract from a few days before. In response to his question Wolf held out the disc case.

"Went to alota trouble for some damn files…" Wolf grunted at the avian.

"Yes, but as we told him; security there was a pushover ah?" He responded by pointing to a stack of Lylatian credits on a tall table in the corner.

Wolf had made a habit of getting cash whenever possible, after they had some trouble with the government hacking the Star Wolf account a few months back. Panther had solved the problem quickly, but Wolf still hated having the feeling of big brother watching him.

"So what's so important you had to hire me to get this damn thing?" Wolf said holding the disc out for the owl.

"He shouldn't ask; not his business." The horned owl hissed snatching the disc from Wolf's large hand.

Wolf however felt as though it was his business; if he had gotten someone who wasn't as well known to the police as Star Wolf was that entire job would have been cake. He had seemed quite insistent that Billie take the job when he called her. But Wolf had too many things on his mind at the time to read into another criminal trying to cover his tracks, so he let it slide off of him and grabbed his payment. Quickly pocketing it, he headed for the exit.

"Our business is done then." Wolf gruffed opening the door back onto the cold street.

"We should like to hire him again." The owl said.

"You know how to get ahold of me." And then the tall lycan stepped out into the dusky street.

The owls bright eyes squinted against his faded and ruffled feathers as the door screeched back to a closed position. And then, quickly with purpose he moved his position to behind a tattered curtain, disc in hand.

"Did he hear everything?" The old avians small black beak clicked into the back room.

A silhouetted figure stood facing away from him.

"Yeah, you did good." He said keeping his arms crossed and facing away.

"He should want this?" The owl handed him the disc.

The dark figure turned to take it with some words: "Just make sure you don't make them suspicious, I don't think that eye patch there will let that slide again."

"Yes, we understand; give the master our regards." The owl finished with a slight bow of his head.

And in a black flash the silhouetted man was gone, disc in hand.

* * *

><p>"You pray, and you pray…" Panther's velveteen voice carried under Star Wolf's kitchen light. "And finally the universe gives you what your heart has most desperately beaten for…" He finished practically purring.<p>

"Are you out of your freakin' mind?" Billie said glaring at him from across the kitchen island with narrow eyes. "She comes to us in tears because of something her lover did; and your first thought is 'how can I bone her'?" Billie finished looking a bit angry with men.

"No, no, no… of course not. But with the dead weight of that vulpine no longer attached to her, it is Panther's turn to woo her into his arms." He said with a wide and happy grin.

"You are not to go near her, until I say so…" Billie finished strumming her fingers irritated over the metal surface.

"Well that's not-"

"Now go to bed!" She yelled and pointed at the hallway as if barking orders to a child.

"Yes fine… best to let her sleep for now anyway." He said looking a bit dejected. And then with a silent cat stride made way for his room.

Billie sighed and rubbed her fore and middle finger on her temple trying to soothe a growing headache.

"Wolf where are you?" She mumbled with sleepy eyes.

* * *

><p>Just under another hour passed… Billie was keeping herself awake, making weird shapes with her shadow lace. She began with some blackened bubbles and watched them drift away stacking along the ceiling. And then she banished them with a small whooshing noise.<p>

Wolf landed his craft out on the flight deck not too long after that. He was about to walk down the hallway that led him to within his base however he stopped, and turned around…

"What the…" He counted five ships.

When he turned back around, he saw lights on and headed towards the kitchen.

"Uhhh…" He stopped once gain looking at his wife sitting on one of the bar stools, there were Shadow Lace tendrils wrapped around her arms like tree roots; and they were ever spreading into the ceiling like a slowly growing dead black tree.

"Finally." She turned at his voice; and as quickly as he had seen the tree in her hands it was gone.

"We need to talk…" She said looking into him with a serious gaze. She patted the bar stool next to her: "You may wish to sit down."

"Look about earlier, I just needed to clear my head…" He trailed off looking at her face; clearly that was not what she wanted to talk about.

"I'm sure you noticed the additional ship?" She said turning her whole body to face him.

"It's Krystal's…"

"Who?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"Blue vixen from Star Fox." She said back flatly.

"What?" He hissed. "Is she here?"

"Calm down… she doesn't actually work for him anymore…" Billie said standing up and walking towards him.

"Is that a fact?" Wolf said in a deep throat.

"I don't know much more than that; she was sobbing and then Panther came out and… the last thing anyone needs after a break-up is to be hit on." She said raising a palm to her face.

"A break-up? You mean McCloud..?"

"Apparently he dumped her… after breaking Star Fox up." Billie said the last words carefully.

"He did what?" Wolf's voice rose.

"Yeah… Krystal was so distraught though I could barely make it out… so I let her sleep in our bed."

"She can't stay here!" Wolf growled.

And then Billie made gestures with her hands for him to keep it down. In response he simply rolled his eyes. So she grabbed his wrist and led him to the lounge that contained the projector with the sunken in couch.

"I don't care if McCloud tried to shoot her down on her way here; she can't stay here!" He said entering the room shaking his head.

"Why? Didn't you hear what I said? There is no more Star Fox; it's not like she's a double agent or something."

"We barley know her! She threw in her lot with that bunch; and when things went to shit she comes running to us?" Wolf said turning back around among the room of guns and computers.

"If you recall, you had never even met me before when you let me join you." She said crossing her arms in a defensive pose.

Wolf stared at her and opened his mouth a bit, but she had rendered him speechless.

"You had the opportunity to kill me as I recall… I wanted you to then; I'm sure part of you wanted to. But you let me live… and here we are."

Wolf thought back on that day in the ship lot outside of that bar… he had known nothing about her except that he found her interesting. And he could admit now that he had also found her attractive.

"I need a cigarette…" He grumbled and plopped himself into the roundabout couch.

Billie took up space right next to him while he dug out an e-cig. She watched him take a long drag and awaited his response. He sat there in the haze flowing from his lips, feeling her eyes on him.

"She can stay… on one condition." He began finally looking at her. "In the morning she has to tell me in complete detail what happened…" He said more or less just wondering what the hell was going on with McCloud.

"Okay… but can you keep Panther away from her please?" She said in an annoyed tone slinging her right leg over her left.

"I'm all over it…" He smirked putting the e-cig in his mouth and flipping the hollow projector on, he searched in the silence and finally landed on the G-Zero Grand Prix, it was live from Katina.

"Well, I wasn't gonna sleep tonight anyways…" Billie muttered sinking down in her seat.

Very nonchalantly Wolf wrapped his large left arm around her shoulders. Her ear flicked over to his direction and she looked at his profile; when she only could see the e-patch side of his face he was so difficult to read. But she also thought it made him look a bit stoic, she was drawn to it.

"Come on Wolf, you know me; if I'm gonna to be burdened with insomnia, then I gotta keep meh hands busy…" She said with his accent.

He turned to give her a 'what the fuck you talking about' look but her fingers had already moved to his belt buckle.

"Uhh, Billie?" He asked in a slow surprised tone.

"Just relax, you idiot." She giggled and moved her face down to his lap.

"Whoah… whoooooah…" His voice reverberated through the room.

"Well that's a new one." He said in a weak voice; then leaning his head back and closing his eyes he used his right hand to hold onto the e-cig for one long drag, and placed his left palm on the back of her head. Then with the sound of a long smooth exhale from his throat he became shrouded in smoke and shadow.

* * *

><p>The next morning Wolf awoke wrapped around something warm. Opening his eyes he stretched his back up in the initial blur. He looked down to see Billie in a tight little ball pressed against the back of the couch, she had his blue vest draped over her center. He slung his feet onto the floor as the memory of what happened after the fact last night came back to him.<p>

"Guess I should check into that…" He mumbled slinging his boots on over the bottoms of his pants.

And in his sleeveless black shirt he made his way down the hallway.

"I was just going to the bathroom…" Panther said in a highly agitated voice.

"I'm sure…" Wolf said staring at the cat that was being held up off of the ground in a black net trap Wolf had set up near his bedroom door.

Then Wolf walked past to his own bedroom door.

"Well aren't you going to cut me down?" Panther pleaded to Wolf's back.

"Oh I'd love to, but promised Billie…" Then he just trailed off thinking: 'I don't need a reason.'

"Hey uhh Krystal…" Wolf started raising his fist to beat on his door, but he stopped short and listened in. Leaning a palm on the door it slid into the wall with a hiss.

He looked in at the blue vixen, sitting up on his bed whipping her bloodshot eyes. He had intended to yell at her but now he just flat out didn't feel it necessary.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion…" She said looking down meekly.

"Breakfast?" Wolf shrugged at her.

* * *

><p>Several minutes later all five of them were gathered around the island in the kitchen. Panther cooked a delightful breakfast of eggs and bacon more for Krystal than anyone else but they all enjoyed it. All of the meat Lylatians consumed came from domesticated four legged animals of course; it's not as if they were chowing down on Pigma. Billie poured Krystal a cup of black breakfast tea, and then took up the seat next to hers deliberately to keep Panther from doing so… not that he was going to make a move with Wolf glaring at the back of his head from where he was leaning against the sink.<p>

"So… what exactly happened yesterday?" Billie said in a sisterly tone.

"It didn't start yesterday…" Krystal said softly looking at her reflection in the dark steaming liquid.

"I'm not sure where to start…"

Billie placed a hand on her back as if trying to ease her mind into place. Wolf kept staring forward with his arms crossed; simply wanting to know how exactly McCloud managed to fuck up. Leon was being the gentleman he could only bring out when the occasion called for it and Panther although wanting to place a comforting hand on her as well did not wish to get a punch to the back of the head.

"I suppose it all really started when Peppy retired from the team…"

"He retired?" Panther asked with a calculating stare.

"Yeah; he took General Pepper's position… due to health reasons." Billie said sipping at her own tea.

"How do you know that?" Wolf asked giving her a look.

"I have been keeping up with Lucy." She openly admitted with a shrug. "She is the daughter of the best friend of my dead best friend; and she lives right down in the city."

Wolf narrowed his eyes as they stared into her large black eyes.

"What?" She said looking back up at him. "Sorry Wolf, but sometimes I need to be around females."

"You know Lucy?" Krystal asked over to Billie.

"Yes. And I know you are friends with her as well… And well, I'm kind of curious as to why you didn't go to her instead of us?" Billie probed carefully.

"I didn't come to Star Wolf… just to you." Krystal said from behind hurt aquatic eyes.

"Me..?" Billie started but then she felt strange. She set her cup down as her brain grew fuzzy. It was Krystal; Billie could feel her delicate pull throughout her brain.

"You know what it's like…" Krystal said aloud.

'You know what loosing absolutely everything is like…' Words in Billie's brain accompanied by pictures of a lush and beautiful planet… as if through another's eyes.

The three men looked on like the two as if they were having a staring contest, they sat there silently glinting at each others faces, but not seeing it at all.

'And then once you have found a new place to feel safe and happy…' Images of the desert where she once lived with Devin flashed over Billie's mind's eye. They began to blur with images of walking through the Great Fox, from Krystal's point of view.

'To have it torn away from you yet again… the crushing weight of it…' Krystal's words in Billie's head were a sinister whisper, as visions of Fox with a hurt look plastered over his face, became blurred with tears and were then gone.

'There is no one else who can fathom it…' And then Billie was treated to the flashback of a young Wolf barking at a celled James: "You are going to die in that cell!"

Billie quickly got to her feet and scrambled backwards.

"What is it?" Wolf asked standing straight up.

The three men in the room were giving Billie weird looks; and then she looked back down to Krystal's dampened doe eyes.

"You know what it's like…" She whispered aloud.

Billie couldn't tell if it was her own feelings of loss, or Krystal still influencing her thoughts; but she suddenly felt lost and alone… like she had so many times before. It dawned on her; she was the only one who could fathom losing a planet.

She had lost Esreia as Krystal had Cerinia. She had lost Devin, and James… Krystal had lost every friend she had made on Star Fox: as well as Fox himself.

"But how do I know of Cerinia?" Billie asked holding her head.

Billie remembered the planet she had never been to as if she had stepped foot among it before. The lush grass, the wide open sky, the feeling of connection. Not only to the solid ground of the planet but it's people as well.

"I shared it with you." Krystal said; "and I learned of your planet as well."

Billie nodded in understanding and sat back down. Wolf eyed them suspiciously and Leon shot a strange look towards the blue vixen… she had done something to his teammate. Panther had not missed that fact either.

"So, what happened after Peppy left?" Billie said clearing her throat.

"Well… Slippy decided to get engaged around that same time. And his Fiancé didn't like the idea of him working on a mercenary team. She was sweet… but my she was bossy." Krystal shook her head.

"The process was slow… but eventually she talked him into leaving. Slippy leaving hit Fox harder than Peppy leaving. He became disinterested in his work, and jobs he did take were… beneath us is what Falco said. Then it boiled to a head where Fox and Falco were just at each other's throats. I tried to keep the peace but… I just couldn't stall their tempers. And eventually Falco tried rather forcefully to spur him back into the groove of things." Krystal's words reverberated with Wolf…

His team had been at each other's throats lately; and Billie was always there to keep the peace. He stared down at the ground as his thoughts took him for a silent ride.

"It failed. Badly… and Falco quit to join up with another group. It was with one of his old friends; her name was Katt I believe. And then after that… he became miserable; he blamed himself for his team, his father's legacy falling to pieces right in front of him. I told him it was nonsense… and then we went on something of a dangerous mission and, my ship was struck down." Krystal's eyes began to tear up again.

"He told me that he would rather I didn't assist him out in the field anymore… I tried to reason with him; I promised I would try harder, practice harder. But he just…" She trailed off.

"That's why he let you go?" Wolf asked from his brooding corner. "Because of one failed mission?"

"He told me hanging around with him was too dangerous and he was worried for my safety and then… he just ordered me to leave." She put her face in her hands.

"That stupid, little prick…" Wolf gruffed out into the air.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"He was worried about you gettin' killed on the job and McCloud couldn't even grow a pair a balls and tell yah to your face." He snarled disgusted at his former rival.

"That's why you let yourself fall apart?!" Wolf spat into the air; Billie was aware that he was talking to Fox.

"Hmm… the end of an era." Leon said sounding disappointed.

"Don't be so blue… uhm Blue." Billie said to the misty eyed vixen.

"Yes; perhaps it simply wasn't meant to be." Panther cooed in her direction. "To think of all of the places you could have gone in this great wide galaxy you would find your way to me." He said daring to place a hand on hers over the table.

"Panther…" Krystal said like she was falling for it. He stared on at her with his glinting golden orbs, as if she were the apple of his eye.

"Okay come on!" Billie said grabbing Krystal's wrists and pulling her up and away.

Wolf watched them leave the room.

'Fuckin' McCloud… what are you doin'?' He thought.

"Wolf?" Leon's voice hit his ears and he peered over at him.

"What do we do now?" He asked.

"I'm leaving Mary Sue there in Billie's hands for the moment." He gruffed out through some sharp teeth. And then he turned to leave.

"And what are you going to do?" Panther asked to his back.

"I'm gonna find out what the fuck was going through that ginger bastards head when he let himself fall to fuckin' pieces like that!" Wolf said in a rage that his rival would just throw himself away like this.

He couldn't believe it… more than that he didn't want to believe it. For he was seeing a similar pattern among his own team. Not to mention it had been a while since he had scratched the old itch. He was gonna go dance with him a little, before Billie could find out he had gone and try to talk him out of it.


	4. Chapter 4

**If someone wanted to make Billie fan art; not gonna lie that would be fantastic. LOL. Just something so flattering when people are enthusiastic about your work, but I know there are alot of readers who don't like OCs. That's fine their loss... Anyways I recommend looking up the songs in this one: it makes it funnier. And since I seem to have two people reading who actually review tell me do you like how my writing style has progressed? Do you think it's too tedious to read? Or would you like to see even more detail? I try to fit in as much as possible. Critique me guys... I LOVE IT.**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER 4<p>

"Just get yourself cleaned up and I'll fish something out for…" Billie pulled one of her shirts out of a drawer and held it up to Krystal's frame: "Waaaay too big." She muttered under her breath.

"Oh I'm quite alright…" Krystal said shyly rubbing her arm.

"No, you can't run around in that blue thing forever; go get yourself cleaned up. And I'll see about getting you settled in somewhere." Billie smiled tossing the shirt over her shoulder.

Krystal's mouth came up into a meek little smile, she had left in such a hurry, all she had with her was what was in the Cloud-Runner; it wasn't much.

"Thank you." Krystal slightly nodded feeling tears burn at the backs of her eyes from being shown such kindness from someone who was practically a stranger.

"It's no trouble at all." Billie said shooing her into the bathroom giving her a towel.

After the door closed over the blue vixen Billie sighed and let her ears droop down to the sides of her head. Still, she felt very alone like she had so many times before. And still she couldn't tell if this was another one of her relapses, or just the memories Krystal had brought back up however unintentionally.

As her feet made their way back to her bedroom she clasped onto Wolf's necklace. He had tried his very best to help her move on… but with this next relapse she felt that perhaps there were scars on her memory that time simply could not mend. How many times had she had a nightmare about her past in the last three years; had a nightmare and said nothing. Even though every horror she once had to live with was all said and done now, still the trauma persisted. And bothering Wolf with it after all he had said to her about picking herself back up and moving on… she refused to become a burden in his eyes.

Stifling her feelings with a deep breath she dug around her closet for something that would fit Krystal. Then an idea dawned on her…

"Lucy…" She whispered. And then immediately she threw on her headgear and speed dialed the hare.

* * *

><p>Krystal stepped out of the shower and into the steam; she wrapped the fluffy white towel around her dripping frame and raised a hand to wipe fog off of the mirror that hung from the stone over the faucet.<p>

Looking down a bit, not wanting to look at her own reflection… she wondered why she even bothered clearing the fog and wrung out her shoulder long locks into the sink. She stopped moving once she was through… then she winced slightly. She would look; she had to make herself. Her bright, slanted eyes finally met with that of her reflections, and she looked at her features carefully.

The only Lylatian she had seen since joining the Star Fox crew with blue fur… Blue that was not dye. The very last of a once proud race of kind hearted telepaths: the one of a kind that this world would never see again.

'You're just a ghost.' She thought at her reflection.

And then she closed her eyes letting her head drop a bit, when she cracked them back open they took in the sight of the shiny aqua gem she wore over her forehead. It had been common practice on Cerinia; the color of the gem one with the telepathy wore signified their level of prowess with their power. Fox hadn't known that when he had given this to her, he simply did so because the gem matched her eyes. With her thumb and index finger she turned it around looking at it from all angles.

She had always tried to take things as they came; tried to be an optimist because things were bound to clear up sooner or later. Even when her people were wiped from existence; still she chose to rise up arms and fight back. She grimaced and bent her ears back. Where had it gotten her? Things inevitably went from bad to worse no matter where you wound up, and the good that happened along the way just gave you more to lose. Not caring now seemed like the most intelligent choice. Hein sight was 20/20 that is for sure.

"No more little Miss Suzie cream cheese…" she scowled at the stone in her hand.

And as she turned to leave she gave the gemstone a hard toss into the metal trash pale. She left the room, and the motion lights went off; leaving it and the rings she had sported on her tail there: everything that went with them alone and forgotten… just as was the fate of her people… just as Fox had put her through again.

Krystal's bare feet plopped on the stone floor and she came back into Billie's room. No one was there, but she saw a set of clothes folded up on the bed for her. And with something that was almost a grin she picked up the T-shirt and held it up. It was smaller than most of the other shirts scattered on the bed and Krystal couldn't help but laugh at the white text printed over the black fabric:

**Don't piss me off; I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.**

* * *

><p>"Alright… Yes I'm so relived you can help. Okay stay put we'll be there shortly." Billie hung up on Lucy and turned around from where she had been facing the gun rack in their lounge.<p>

Leon looked up from where he was standing with his arms crossed:

"Are you sure going into town is a good idea at the moment?" He questioned his usual cold stare.

"Well… no. But I do it all the time when I go see Lucy. I just use my make-up." Billie said referring to the white fur paint she hid the blaze up her face with when the heat was on Star Wolf and she had places to go.

"And that Lucy Hare you have been chatting with in here for the last few months…" Leon said shifting his eyes to a computer screen.

"She's the daughter of a military official." He noted.

"Yeah but… well… Leon it's a girl thing you wouldn't get it." She said dismissing him.

"Now where is Wolf?" She asked looking around the room.

"He left…" Panther said vaguely from the couch.

"But…" Billie looked at the blue plasma proof vest he had covered her with still on the couch. If he wasn't wearing that, he wasn't going out looking for trouble. She sighed with slight relief at that.

"Where would he go?"

Panther let off a shrug seeming disinterested.

* * *

><p>Wolf's claws strummed the dash of his Wolfen as he quietly zooted through space. He had slung a dark grey coat over his shirt before leaving, and had even neglected to put any gloves on like he usually would before a flight. He was an impatient man to begin with; but now he had to slap some sense into that miserable pup who dared to call himself a mercenary. Unfortunately he had no way of knowing where he was at the moment.<p>

But one thing Wolf had done in his favor over the years; was building up excellent connections. He moved both of his large hands to the half wheel as he made to navigate his way through a mass of asteroids. In the deep of space the slight blue let off by his e-patch became a bright ray of light, and it framed his features in the darkness of his cockpit. And cluster after cluster he at last saw his Sargasso Space Zone drift into view. The Red Fang made a screeching slice right for it.

"Lord O'Donnell has returned!" a black ape yelled from a platform overlooking the flight deck, alerting the underlings nearby.

His tail swooshed up and down behind him slowly as he made his way through the metal structure.

"Milord!" A chameleon with much more charisma than Leon jogged up to him.

"Am I glad you finally made it up here; we got something to show you." She said clapping her three-fingered hands together in a slight bow of respect.

"What is it?" Wolf asked looking rather bored.

"Something nice…" She hissed his way.

He raised an eyebrow, and then placed his hands in his pockets and followed her to one of the inner decks. Wolf let out a whistle when he saw the machinery that a dozen or so of the criminals under him were working on and around.

"It is nice…" He said taking in the view of the Landmaster. It was heavily damaged, but just by looking he could see it wasn't totaled.

"Where did yah get it?" He said making a quick approach to it.

"Ohhh, that's the best part." The reptile giggled in an unsettling way, and then her skinny finger pointed up to it. Wolf's eyes followed it until they landed on the Star Fox insignia air brushed onto the metal.

"You… robbed McCloud?" He said in a raised voice not breaking his eye line from the heap before him.

"Not at all; we found it."

Wolf turned to look at her with a wide stare.

"On Titania." She said in a smooth but still proud voice.

"What was it doing there?" Wolf asked carefully as memories of his time on the Red Planet swam around in his head. He hated Titania… it was miserably hot and dry; and those Goras monstrosities Andross loved to fool with so much had a bad habit of attacking anyone who got near. Even members of the Venom army like himself had to avoid them; he curled his nose up at the memory of that place.

"We don't know it was quite abandoned: looked like they had a mission there that gave them a bit more than they could handle. I heard that afterwards the last two members of his team finally called it quits and went their separate ways."

"Last two members…" Wolf muttered in thought. "Their loss: we're gonna have fun with this thing." He smirked up at the tank he had been gifted by fate.

And then getting back to his reason for being there at all he asked; "Where's Brad?"

Just a few minutes later… Wolf was standing on an elevated platform looking down over the damaged Landmaster with arms crossed in impatience.

"You wanted to see me?" An overly deep but still buttery voice came from his right side.

Wolf didn't move, but his good eye shifted to look at the short crocodile with the mouth jutting this way and that with crooked and sharp teeth smiling up at him, in a smile that all reptiles seemed to share. It was as if they were up to no good; but you could not place why exactly it looked this way. Brad was no more than four feet tall, and he sported a dark orange flight suit that was the same shade as his slit eyes. The black stripes running up the wrists, legs and across his waist brought out his eyes even farther. His scales looked faded and glazed with time, jumbled behind that nasty row of teeth.

"Took your sweet time." Wolf gruffed turning his gaze back to the project below.

"Business is booming, I have a lot of clients to see." The crock named Brad shrugged, and then proceeded to take up space next to Wolf.

"So what service do you require today Lord O'Donnell?" And his orange eyes shifted down to where Wolf's own eye line could trace the work being done below.

"Information."

"Oh, my specialty. What do you need? I just heard from a good source the reason that Bloodhound Pepper; you know the one who placed the bounty on your team? Well apparently the 'medical reason' he retired that was not disclosed to the public is on-going negative effects on his body from that Aparoid mutation he suffered almost four years ago. Hahaha." The crocodile went on as if soul rotting gossip was his oxygen supply.

Wolf didn't much care for that aspect of him; he would give any kind of information to anyone for the right sized stack of credits, which at times made Wolf wary about how much of himself he let get to the old dragons ear. But, that was also what made him the best information seeker this side of Lylat.

"For a fee we'll discuss later… I need to find out everything you can dig up on what Fox McCloud has been doing for the past few months. But most importantly though, where he is now." Wolf said finally turning his body to face the crocodile that he dwarfed significantly.

"Hmmm… It's possible." He said looking up as if he was thinking about something. And then he scratched his chin with the small claws on his webbed hand.

"Yes, definitely. I'll get right on it." He finished by looking Wolf into the eyes with a jagged grin that was just enough to make you want to keep your guard up.

"I should be back with you within the week on that." Brad finished.

Wolf just nodded and made a wide stride for the elevator. He wanted a chance to tinker with his new toy.

* * *

><p>"KOWABUNGA!" Billie screamed as she shot over a snow dune on the cycle Wolf had made.<p>

Krystal was holding onto her back for dear life, but Billie was jamming out to the song: Purple Haze by Jimmi Hendrix.

"Excuse me, while I kiss the sky!" She yelled up to the sun as the snow belted up around them when their tires made contact with the ground once again.

"Did you steal your license?!" Krystal yelled over the song as she was jostled about.

"Oh loosen up!" Billie yelled back over her shoulder through a pair of yellow glassed goggles with a black frame that cut down on glare.

Krystal was wearing Billie's old black coat with the red stitching, she was drowning in it as the two tails of it whipped and licked in the wind behind her.

"Besides, I aint' got no stinkin' license!" Billie laughed evilly in her fluffy red coat.

"Oh wonderfuuuuuooooo!" Krystal screamed as they made another jump.

By the time they broke out of the snow onto the highway Krystal was laughing up a storm however, causing her visible breath to momentarily trail behind them.

"Whew that was fun." Billie said killing the engine in the parking lot of a large apartment complex several minutes later.

"I can't feel my face." Krystal giggled. She raised her hands up to touch it and the sleeves of Billie's huge coat slid down her arms.

"Me either." Billie said with a frozen smile, as she moved her goggles to the top of her head. "Wolf likes the cold." She added as Krystal stepped up from the cycle.

In the next few moments Billie's fist was pounding on a door that read 802 in elegant gold numbers.

"Well, I thought you would never show up!" The old tomboy Lucy Hare beamed as she swung her door open. Then her ears drooped a bit: "You look freezing."

Billie, with a pure white face permitted to her from her make-up nodded awkwardly like she was stiff with the cold.

"Well come on in Killer Queen!" Lucy giggled as she back up and let them enter.

"Oh Krystal it's good to see you again." Lucy said taking their coats, and tossing them to a lavender velvet sofa.

"Yes…" Krystal said lowering herself into a pink chair with a hand carved wooden frame.

The last time Krystal had hung out with Lucy, she was learning as much as she could about what Fox was like when they grew up together. Peppy had been there too; he had become a father figure to Krystal.

Lucy looked to the saddened Krystal and then up to Billie, who made a face as if to say 'ease into it'.

"I'm sorry Fox is an ass." Lucy blurted out awkwardly.

Billie slapped her palm to her face.

"Its okay, both of you!" Krystal said looking up at them.

They looked down at her with pity; and she hated it.

"Stop tip-toeing around me… please." She said up to them. "I'm tired of being the victim, always waiting to be rescued and taken care of. I want to walk my own way now!" She finished clenching her fists.

"Sorry…" Billie said

"We're sorry." Lucy said at the same time.

"I just… Wolf was my first relationship so… I didn't know how to help you." Billie scratched her head awkwardly.

"So she asked me if I had ever been dumped." Lucy said plopping down on her sofa, next to a little stand with a dark mahogany violin on it.

In fact her whole apartment looked very warm and inviting; and smelled of something sweet that Billie and Krystal could not place.

"And I said that we would do exactly what I did when my first boyfriend dumped me."

"Girls day!" Billie and Lucy said at once.

Krystal broke out into a giggle fit at the two tough girls acting so overly feminine.

"Besides you are gonna need some stuff if you are gonna stay with me." Lucy said getting up and throwing some shoes on.

She looked at Krystal in the baggy shirt and jeans that was clearly Billie's. The only thing Krystal was wearing that she owned was her blue boots.

"Staying with you?" Krystal said getting up and then she looked to Billie.

"Well… this just seems like a better environment; after what…"

"I told you to stop tip-toeing around me!" Krystal stomped her foot.

"I'm not! It's just…" Billie was lying and she knew it, she just wound up looking down.

"Let's not talk about it until later." Lucy said throwing their coats to them. And then she placed an arm around Krystal's shoulder and they made their way down to Lucy's little car.

"Let's kick it!" Billie said after calling shotgun in the small silver car.

"Right!" Lucy said turning on the music to 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'.

Billie immediately shut it off saying: "NOPE."

. Lucy gave her a look as she took out a small music jump drive. She slid it into the car's drive: Shoot To Thrill by AC/DC blared out of the speakers.

Then she turned to them and nodded as if to say; much better. Krystal nodded at Lucy, who nodded back and put the pedal to the floor.

The three hit every single boutique Fichina had to offer; they all tried clothes on and strutted there curves around in each place for each other. Lucy and Billie, nodding 'no' to this and 'yes' to that.

Billie had a big wad of mad money and she paid for everything, even the gas. Krystal got practically an entire wardrobe, and she made sure to choose items different from the old Krystal who she had left behind in the bathroom this morning. They ran from place to place; bitching about men along the way; and they even took some tone deaf lessons from Billie who was still chiming 'shoot to thrill, play to kill!' with the excitement.

Hitting a salon Krystal got her hair cut, in an edgy messy way that she had never had the courage to try before now. But she saw that Billie had cut her hair and it looked good around her face. She kept two bits long hair in front framing her face from her ears, and had some bangs hang over where she used to wear that bloody gem. She even requested some streaks of white be dyed into it.

By the end of their little montage, Krystal no longer resembled herself and Billie's wad of mad money was half gone.

Krystal strutted with her head held high in a tight pair jeans that made her ass look like a peach under her bushy tail; she had an orange shirt tucking into it with cut off shoulders. And she even got a coat her size appropriate for the cold: it was white with black faux fur peeking out bushy around her collar and wrists. And of course Billie introduced both of them to her love of black combat boots. By the time they had finished remaking Krystal they had decided to look into some ship hardware. Most girls couldn't appreciate it; but Billie and Lucy had a passion for it that they taught Krystal of well as they ran about looking at different makes and models.

Finally the sun was setting and the three girls found themselves in a sports bar.

"Hey can I get another… uhhh tubey thing?" Billie said waving an empty jello-shot at the bar tender.

"Oh I think I hit my limit on these things." Lucy said.

"Me too…" Krystal laughed practically falling off her stool.

"Oh GAWD I gotta teach you two how to drink. *hic*" Billie said.

"Speaking of that; who is the designated driver?" Krystal said looking around at the two.

"The cab driver that's who." Billie said with a quiet burp.

The bar tender returned with another round of jello-shots. "Ladies." The husky winked at them.

"PFFFTP!" Lucy laughed behind her large teeth.

"OH MY GOD!" Billie yelled dropping her shot.

"WHAT?!" T hey both yelled staring at her.

"I love this song!" Billie squealed clumsily getting up onto the bar.

"Cause every girls crazay bout' a sharp dressed man!" Billie howled out dancing up on the bar.

The bar tender stared on at her laughing a bit, and from behind Krystal and Lucy heard some men at a pool table giving her whistles and cat-calls.

"She's a free spirit I'll giver that." Krystal said taking her last shot.

"Yeah, good thing Wolf isn't her or he would be handing out some ass kicking's to the guys back there." Lucy said taking her shot.

"I bet." Krystal agreed looking at Billie making a drunken ass of herself. Wolf certainly seemed like he was prone to jealousy.

"So what are you *hic* going to do?" Lucy asked trying to be serious; but just coming off as drunk.

"About what?" Krystal said stealing Billie's abandoned shot.

"About Fox…" Lucy shrugged dramatically.

"Oh that…" Krystal said as if she were talking about a gross insect or pest.

"Yeah, he really fucked up." Lucy said agreeing with her tone. "But I'm sure he had a reason… So what are you gonna do?"

"Reason…" Krystal said as if the word was poison in her mouth. "I'm joining Star Wolf." She concluded watching Billie nearly trip.

"SAVE!" Billie rang out regaining her balance.

"You think Wolf will even let you do something like that?" Lucy questioned with a concerned look.

"Sure; if Billie tells him to, she happens to be doing him so he should be easy enough to convince." She said in the sly way that stood as a vixen's trademark.

"Well good luck… Billie says he is prone to a fierce temper." Lucy said giving her a slap on the shoulder.

"I can handle myself." Krystal smiled through drunken bloodshot eyes.

Then they both jumped as they heard a crash.

"Oh gosh…"

They rushed over to Billie collapsed on the floor.

"You oaky?" Lucy asked down loudly.

"The song changed… *hic* threw off my balance!"

"Anything broken?" Krystal laughed.

"No… but maybe I have hit my limit… Pfffpaaaahahahahaha!" Billie snickered.

"Good, when you sober up tell your husband I'm joining Star Wolf." Krystal sloshed suddenly feeling very drunk.

"Seriously?" Billie said covering her mouth, she felt a sudden rush of vomit; but it passed.

"Damn sure am!" And with that they both pulled Billie to her feet.

* * *

><p>Wolf returned late, Panther was still up though sitting in the kitchen area awaiting Krystal's return. Wolf still saw Krystal's ship in the lot; he made a sort of growling noise under his breath.<p>

"Where are they?" Wolf said to his feline teammate as he whipped off his coat.

"They left not too long after you, and they have yet to return." Panther said with a shrug.

"Did you find out what you needed to?" Panther pressed.

"No… But I did get my hands on somethin' nice." He smirked.

"Oh?"

But before they could continue they heard a screeching noise coming from the garage, followed by a crash. They both ran through the flight deck and then out into their garage and looked at the sight before them: there was a large black streak all the way down the garage platform and the cycle had come to a crash with the wall facing the opening to the outside.

"Oh so that's the brake *hic* I see now." Krystal said on Wolf's cycle.

"Yeah it's tricky…" Billie giggled falling off of the back.

"What the hell is this?" Wolf yelled feeling his blood pressure rising.

"Hi honey!" Billie waved from the floor, and then Krystal killed the engine.

"My Krystal; you truly look ravishing…" Panther said at her makeover practically going slack-jawed. He stared at her as she moved to help Billie up.

"Who gives a shit!" Wolf yelled over at Panther. "Where were you two on my cycle?"

"Where were we? *hic* Where were **you** man and who wants to know!?" Billie said pointing at Wolf over dramatically.

"What?" Panther and Wolf both said.

"Panther be a dear and get the bags." Krystal said right as Billie lost it and burst out laughing.

"You took her shopping?" Wolf said with narrowing irritated eyes.

"Yeah; she needed stuff… *hic*" Billie wobbled as she walked up to Wolf.

"Are you drunk?" Wolf said looking at her bloodshot eyes.

"Me too!" Krystal chimed from behind her.

Wolf could smell the booze on Billie from two feet away, and he looked at her trying to keep her balance, but she just barley had it.

"Billie you're plastered…" He gestured at her with his long arms.

"And you are sexy!" she retorted with grabbing his bare arm and squeezing the muscle.

"What were you guys doing?" Panther said lugging a whole lotta bags behind Krystal.

"GIRLS DAY!" They both cheered out with their arms up.

"Shoot to thrill." Billie said.

"Play to kill." Krystal finished whipping her tail up behind her as she exited the room, Panther eagerly following her.

Wolf just shook his head as Billie wobbled to catch up to them.

"And Wolf before you gives me the third degree; Lucy got wasted too!" Billie said leaning on the kitchen island for support.

"Just put those anywhere Panther." Krystal said turning to Billie and giving her support as they made their way into the hall.

"Lemme ask, does Wolf ever say your name during orgasm?" Krystal said as they stood there trying not to fall over.

"Sometimes…" She said without missing a beat.

"BIILIE!" Wolf yelled from the kitchen.

"Well you do…" She shrugged. "Sometimes he calls me Trishaaaa. HAHAHA."

"See, Fox never did that; it was always just some grunting and biting…" Krystal said looking up in memory.

"Yeah Wolf bites too." Billie said pointing at him.

"Billie!" Wolf called less aggressively this time… he was hoping they wouldn't remember this in the morning.

"What?" Billie said again.

And then breaking away from the blue vixen she trotted up to him.

"Are you angry?" She asked eagerly.

"Yeah…" He said in a questioning tone.

Billie quickly turned to Krystal and made a 'shoo' gesture. She shrugged and wobbled down the hallway.

"What's the matter with you?" He asked getting annoyed.

"Angry sex!" She said pushing him into the sink.

"Uhhh, well…" Wolf said considering it for a moment.

"Oh…" Billie groaned, and then she pushed him out of the way and threw up in the sink.

Wolf saw Panther looking at him with a raised eyebrow; and just rolled his eyes. With a chuckle Panther went to his own room.

"I… am okay!" Billie said shooting her head back up.

"No you're not." Wolf gruffed and picked her up.

"Heeyy…" Billie passed out right there before she could protest.

He plopped his blacked out wife down next to Krystal on his own bed and then pulled the sheets up over both of them. With a long and loud sigh he left, not even able to sleep in his own bed he made his way back to the lounge.

'I'm sure Panther wouldn't try anything with Billie in there too.' He thought as he passed Panther's door.

Making a pillow with his coat he punched it a few times, probably a bit too hard and then laid himself down to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**I have literally been up for the last twelve hours writing this one. UGH sleep is for the weak! Anyways after much inner strife as to where this story is going; and my slight over exploration of only two characters I have decided to really build the rest of the crew up in this one. Particularly Leon who I have accidentally let fade into the background (Whoops) and a character like Leon deserves more than that. So I apologize. As for my small but very loyal fan base, thank you for becoming so attached to Billie; I had thought I was doing everything all wrong because I centered her a bit too much; but I decided to take it as a learning experience instead and not let my OC hog the spot light too much anymore. And don't expect Anglers to show up guys... I really didn't care for the story line of Command so this is going a whole other way: fresh outa my noodle. Enjoy yourself, it's sooner than you think. Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

"Krystal wake up." She felt someone shaking her, and opened her eyes

"Mom?" She uttered in some strange dialect.

"We need to get you out of here, before the reptiles come this way." In the darkness her mother quickly ushered her upwards.

Krystal was still groggy and dazed: "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"There is no time daughter please!" The older vixen with the long elegant hair said quickly in a frantic tone.

"Take this, and get to the outer wall: your father will meet you there." She concluded in a rush handing her father's collapsible staff.

"Wait!" She said finally waking up a bit. And then a number of panicked screams could be heard from outside.

"Run girl!" Her mother yelled to her with a frantic look.

Krystal's real eyes shot open, and then she tightly closed them for they were incredibly dry and scratchy.

"Agh…" She put her hands to her throbbing head and rolled over slightly.

Through her watering bloodshot eyes she made out a drooling Billie breathing loudly next to her.

"Ohh… Why?" Krystal muttered closing her eyes and rolling back onto her back; why had she and Lucy indulged Billie. As soon as the white wolf had seen Joogee fruit jello-shots all hell broke loose.

"Teach me how to drink, will you?" She peeked over at the nearly dead Billie through a cracked eye.

With a groan she pulled the upper half of her body up and kept rubbing her eyes. Putting her socked feet on the ground made her feel dizzy; she held her stomach as a small bout of nausea came over her. But it passed quickly, leaving her to focus on her splitting headache. Wearing the same jeans and shirt from their little 'girls day' she wobbled her way to the bedroom door.

The bright lights in the bathroom felt like daggers to her eyes, wincing she looked at herself in the mirror and turned the faucet on. Letting the cold water work its magic on her face she blunk the dry out of her eyes as best she could and tried to banish her dream away with thoughts.

'Maybe I should change my name…' She thought to her reflection. Her mother had told her stories of how names held power. You would inevitably become that for which you were named in the end… 'Krystal, ironic.' She chuckled as the thought passed through her mind.

When she had become trapped within that crystal; she thought that was the end… for sure it had to be. Looking back on it now she almost wished it had been: that would have been easier than that orange vulpine using her family's heirloom to come to her rescue… and for what? She gritted her teeth, letting her mind go back to that bastard after what she promised herself yesterday.

Then she gasped, her staff: she had left it on the Great Fox. That was the last thing she had left of Cerinia, she put a hand to her mouth. And after a moment she giggled a bit from her throat…

"No… that was all I had left of Krystal." Yes Krystal, the damsel in distress who had always relied on that man to come to her rescue; on Sauria, on the battlefield… He had even come to her rescue to help ease her emotional pain, and that had just led her farther down the path that the damned had to walk. Her and Billie, two of a kind perpetually losing everything they would ever own.

Feeling her headache subside enough to function properly she looked back into the mirror at the new Krystal, the one who carried on spitting in the face of the curse that seemed to follow her.

"Hey that's good…" She said putting a finger to her chin.

"Kursed… I like it. Mhmm." She hummed with a flick of her tail and strutted out of the room.

"Well how did you sleep my rarest of blue gems?"

Krystal looked to Panther sitting at the kitchen island with his fingers laced under his chin.

"Waiting for me were you?" She said staring right through him.

"For you my dear Krystal I would wait forever… until our very own blue giant star Lylat ceased to burn." He sang it out as if he had been rehearsing it.

"Don't call me that, please." She said closing her eyes against the light.

"I shall call you whatever you wish, after all a rose by any other name would still smell as sweetly as the luscious blue rose before me…" He said gesturing for her to take a bottle filled with thick green material from the table top.

"Always were a charmer…" She said snidely stepping forward.

"Drink up… ehh…"

"Kursed." She said coolly.

"Kursed, interesting choice…" He said ever so slightly narrowing his eyes in thought.

"Oh what is this nasty mess?" She curled up her muzzle in disgust after taking a sip.

"My famous hang-over cure. Ask Billie or Wolf; it really does work."

"Oh… uck…" She mumbled under her breath and then chugged it down as quickly as she could.

"So aside from the after effects of the liquor, Panther takes it you are feeling well once more?" He pried holding her with his large gold eyes.

"Yes, quite." She lied to herself.

"Would you then, perhaps like to have a nice little chat in the lounge?" He inquired like silk sheets against the skin.

"Hmm…" Krystal eyed him… but with more than her eyes. She let herself invade the privacy of the cat's thoughts; she smirked in a way that only Kursed would call a facial expression and then stood.

* * *

><p>"Ooooohhh…" Billie groaned rolling to her right.<p>

Her head felt like someone was taking a jackhammer to both of her temples. She couldn't even open her eyes, there was too much crust caking them shut.

"Paaaain… DOH!" She fell off the side of the bed and laid on the cold stone floor for a few seconds, the coldness of it felt good against her sweaty body.

Raising her hand half-heartedly to her face she began to rub the crust off of her eyes one at a time. They slowly and dryly peeled open to reveal a dark room around her.

"I love Joogee fruit… but it don't love me…" She sputtered, using quite literally all the strength she had to give to push herself up off of the floor.

"Ow… ow… ow…" She repeated every slow step she took towards the door, her sheet dragging behind her until she finally let go of the end near the threshold.

After throwing up once in the toilet, and then just a bit in the sink she washed it away with the cold water and got the rest of the sleep out of her scratchy eyes. Still feeling like she could die at any moment she made a very slow stride into the kitchen, upon spotting an empty bottle there and nothing more she decided to keep walking forward.

In a sleep like trance she looked at four ships sleeping peacefully, but she didn't quite register that the Rainbow Delta was missing and thought little of it. She stood in the doorway to the garage with her arms hanging limply at her sides.

Wolf was crouching down using Billie's tool box of goodies to fix his cycle; grumbling a bit as he did so after their little joy ride last night. It looked like quite the project; he had taken the front end apart, rested the roundabout tire against the wall and was banging out dents. Hearing a groan behind him he turned his head to look.

"You look gorgeous." He said sarcastically to his wife who almost still looked like she was drunk.

"Whaaaah?" She said making no effort to fix her slumping posture.

"Yeah I figured you would feel like that in the mornin'." He said taking a bottle of thick green liquid from his belt and holding it out in her direction.

She stared blankly forward.

"You want it? Gotta work for it…" He grinned at his own personal form of revenge for his wrecked cycle.

"Ugh." She whispered through her teeth and stepped forward like a zombie, slowly with her arms out: reaching for the proven hang over cure.

"Come on…" Wolf said giving it a shake.

"You suck." She said finally reaching it, and meekly taking it in her hands.

"Not as much as you…" He smirked turning back to the dent he was trying to get out.

"You aint' allowed to drink away from base anymore." He used some vice-grips to try and pull a large dent out of one of the tires support rods. They were such a weird design he thought they would be more difficult to break.

'Leave it to Billie to prove me wrong.' He thought through his aggravated grunts.

Billie was looking down at the open bottle near her mouth; wondering if she could stomach chugging the foul sludge.

With a loud pop, the bar went back to its proper position… aside from looking just a tad warped. Wolf sat down on the floor and tossed down the vice-grips; he looked up at Billie staring down at her drink through baggy and bloodshot eyes.

"Shit, I don't think I've ever seen you this hung over." He laughed in his throat.

"Never, again." She said slowly, and then put the bottle to her lips and bent her head back chugging it down.

"EEEEEYUCK." She spat and plopped down unintentionally next to Wolf, the empty bottle rolled off to her side.

Wolf kept chuckling as he felt around his pockets.

"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Billie said holding her mouth so she wouldn't puke.

"Well…" He started pulling out an e-cig. "I was gonna get a fresh one when I got up; but there were two hung over women sleepin' in my bed. And since they hadn't been there on my account I figured I shouldn't bother em'."

"Aww, you are just the sweetest man alive." She said in her old snarky tone.

"That crap clearin' yur head I take it?" He said taking a drag.

Billie could only nod and hold her stomach. Wolf's cigarette didn't glow as he breathed it in; it was dead.

"Shit…" He grumbled, for that had been his last one.

"Maybe you should quit…" Billie said looking at his scarred up, muscular frame sitting in the gold light that streamed in through the window.

"Yeah?" He said in a tone that implied; 'you want me to?'

Then he snapped the device in half with his fingers and tossed the pieces to the corner.

"Aren't you cold?" Billie asked with fewer slurs as her head defogged.

"I don't mind." They could both feel the cold from outside coming down the breezeway.

Billie looked at the black tire marks that were leading in. And then for the first time her attention came to the cycle he had taken apart to fix.

"What happened last night?" She said holding her head.

"Girls day." Wolf said wiggling his fingers in an ironic tone.

"Oh fuck that's right… Blue asked to join Star Wolf."

"Blue? That's original…" He smirked.

"Yeah, just like Wolf huh?" She said in a full swing of sarcasm.

"And your hang over is going, going and it's gone." He said picking himself back up to a crouching position and continuing his work.

"Sorry we did… uhm." Billie just scratched her head.

"It's fine." Wolf said not turning to look at her.

But she learned how to register his tones very well by now; he was sincere.

"Mmm…" She stretched out her arms and back. "So where's Leon?"

"I don't know: and I don't care." Wolf gruffed.

"What happened?" Billie asked feeling her sudden good mood drop back down and away.

"Nuthin'… I woke up before you, Panther and Suzie Q. Leon was gone."

"Have you tried calling him?" Billie said feeling a bit panicked.

"He'll be back." Wolf said digging around for a socket wrench.

"How do you know?"

"This aint' the first time he's been…" Wolf just trailed off and shook his head.

"I know you and Leon get along pretty well but; there are things about him you really don't understand." Wolf said shifting his gaze out of the window.

"Yeah… you didn't seem to let him talk about your past together much. I never did get the whole story on those Katinan prostitutes." She said crossing her arms in a huff.

Wolf chuckled. "Billie I don't even remember what those whores looked like: so take it easy."

"I don't care about that, why won't you tell me more about Leon, he's really fading into the background." She said realizing how little he was talking lately. Billie and Leon actually used to talk quite a bit after Wolf and Billie were married: he really wasn't all bad even though he could be a sick twisted fuck.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it… because I really don't know." Wolf said turning his head down to his hands.

Billie stared at him; he looked like he was in some intent thought. He let out a very long sigh, not really wanting to bring up his Venom days around her.

How many times had she awoken at night with some kind of night terror and not even told him? He would just grab hold in the moments before she awoke when she was rolling around and groaning. He thought just letting her know he was there would help, and it would make her feel better that she didn't need to directly rely on him. Because although he would fish for answers while talking with her she seemed to prefer to avoid it: so he let her.

"Leon's people… the skinny reptiles; not the insanely muscular dinosaurs of Sauria; are from Venom originally. Did you know that?" Wolf asked sitting in front of her making eye contact.

"I remember learning as a child of how life couldn't make it on Venom… but when Adross was sent there he learned how wrong the textbooks were on that one. Leon's people survived there quite easily… and he decided to use their limited knowledge of life outside that miserable rock for his own uses."

Billie tilted her head trying to guess where he was going with this.

"He brainwashed em'… and then he forced the youngest and most capable to become child soldiers to build up his forces from the ground. I know that Leon was a kid around this time. His skills were good enough to earn him a place as child assassin…" Wolf said with a wince; even he knew a kid taking up arms training wasn't right.

"He was a child soldier?" Billie asked weakly.

Wolf nodded. "I don't know to what extent the training went… But all of Adross's soldiers called Venom home. And when I had to throw Star Wolf together I picked him because it was common knowledge that reptilians on Venom of his age had been in the army since they were young… I ran across him in a rough bar on Venom one night while I was scoutin' for team members. And that's about all I know." Wolf finished looking back down.

"So… wait you didn't explain what's going on now." Billie said scratching her head.

"The reptiles that underwent the childhood training like him… they were prone to psychotic breaks. Leon kills because it was what he was trained to do from the time he was very small… But like so many others I saw in that damned army; in order to cope he had to build up a taste for it. When they go without too long… well we all gotta get our fix." He said gesturing at his own scars.

"So the desire to torture… is Leon's coping mechanism?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"And without a free hand to kill like he wants he is…"

"This happened once before around the time the Lylat wars ended…" Wolf admitted.

"And?" Billie asked hanging on his words.

"I didn't ask, when people who had fled with us vanished… or when Leon left for a few days and then came back out of the blue. Because, he seemed to be getting his medicine… he became easy for me to manage without fear of him turning dagger to me. So I just pretended I saw nothin'. And that is what imma do this time." Wolf shrugged.

Billie hugged her knees and bent her ears back; she couldn't help but pity him.

"Actually, I always thought that was why you two got along so well…" Wolf mumbled turning back to his project.

"What?" Billie asked in a high tone.

"Leon has never gotten along well enough with anyone to make small talk with em'; except you. I think it has somethin' to do with you being a sort of child soldier yourself."

"Yeah…" Billie whispered thinking back on Leon's behavior.

He respected Wolf that was true… but they never spoke of things outside of work. Leon found Panther's entire personality overbearing… but he would go out of his way to chat with Billie even when they weren't on job. Not that they spoke of anything significant… just small talk really. She hadn't realized how comfortable she had grown in his company either, when they first met she was mortified of him. But today she was worried about him.

"Oh shit…" Billie said getting up.

"What?" Wolf turned.

"Panther and Blue! They are alone!" She squealed.

"So?" Wolf shrugged turning back to his cycle.

"She's-"

"She's a big girl; she wants to exchange bodily fluids with that… pretty boy- let her."

"…" Billie stood there for a minute, ears drooping slowly.

Wolf heard a small chime from his e-patch.

"Take call." He said monotone to his tech,

His left eye took in the shape of an ape wearing a rather sinister looking face.

"Lord O'Donnell; we finished the piece to your exact specifications." He said his skin wrinkling up in a wide grin.

"Great, park it out on the flight bay and make sure no one touches it until I say so." And with that he hung up; Wolf had been hoping that was Brad with his intel.

He could have just asked Krystal but… he didn't think she would know at this point.

"Hmm…" He stood up thinking of what was apparently his newest member.

"Alright let's go." He said to the nervous looking Billie who was biting her nails.

* * *

><p>"These look like custom jobs…" Krystal said tapping her finger to a heavy machine gun in the rack of the lounge.<p>

"Indeed; most of them were made by Wolf, he has sort of a thing for guns. Even if they are seldom used. But our very own Billie has crafted several as well… they worked together on several, like that little gem." Panther said pointing to an EMP gun.

"That one has actually come in handy scrambling police computer systems on the fly." He purred growing ever closer to Krystal's back.

"Hmm… I guess being on Star Fox we were a bit limited with military issue." She said admiring their creativity.

"Oh standard can get so dull…" He whispered into her ear.

Krystal turned her head the opposite way and strode away from him. She turned back around staring him with a sneaky but sort of happy face, the sunken in roundabout couch just behind her feet.

"Indeed; Fox truly is a fool… to let such a rare and radiant beauty flee from his sight."

"I don't want to talk about that one…" she said looking down.

She was trying her damndest to toss everything Krystal had dragged along with her away: and this is how she was to start.

"No matter where you would flee from me in the great Galaxy of twinkling stars; know that I would eagerly race to your side in merely one beat of my heart simply to sacrifice myself for your safety."

Krystal began to snicker through her nose… "Where do you get this stuff? I can't believe you can actually say it so seriously." She laughed.

Panther approached her and cupped the side of her face in his right palm.

"I can say it this way because I mean absolutely every word my dear Kursed."

Letting herself wander through his head with no care for his privacy like the old Krystal would have dragged along: she made quite narrow eyes at him, she knew exactly what he was after all right.

"Well, I suppose I'm a free agent now…" She said it in a seductive way… a way that was almost a bit unnerving.

Closing his eyes ever so slowly Panther led his face in with a kiss. At first she kept her eyes open slightly… refusing to open her mouth. But damnit he was good kisser, and when he moved his hands to her shoulders and then slowly down into the curve of her center… she found her eyes closing and her mouth opening to the soft embrace of this fool. Her fool now.

She put her hands on his face, pulling herself close to him and then…

"What the hell?!" Billie's shrill voice rang out from the other side of the room.

Krystal and Panther quickly separated their faces and looked over to the doorway.

"I'm blind." Wolf said staring wide eyed. He didn't think she would actually fall for it; he thought surely for the amount she had been crying she had some sort of misplaced loyalty to McCloud left.

"Blue, what are you doing?" Billie said with an over exaggerated shrug.

"It's Kursed, please." She said pushing Panther away.

"Kursed?" Billie echoed… "Yeah I'm gonna call you Blue."

"I don't care what it is princess; I won't have it from my team members." Wolf glared at Panther.

"That's a bit hypocritical of you…" Panther said looking to Billie.

"That is completely different." Wolf glared right back begging him to try again.

"Is it? How much did you two really know about each other before you did the horizontal mambo? How much do you know of her now?" Panther said daring a few steps towards his angry boss.

"More than you know about Suzie Q there." Wolf growled lowly.

"Oh? So you and Billie share absolutely everything?"

Wolf opened his mouth, but Panther cut right back in.

"Because I remember a time before you were actually married; when Billie decided to stop being involved with you, and then fed you that lie about how she was checking to see if you had stopped hallucinating…"

"Panther!" Billie yelled, feeling him stab her in the back: he had sworn he wouldn't tell Wolf a word.

"Well, she was actually planning on leaving you on that third day…"

"What?" Wolf chuckled at first… until he looked to Billie.

She was staring at Panther with wide and sad eyes.

"I'm sorry dear… but sometimes people just need to be put in their place." He said softly to Billie; and then he maneuvered around Wolf and made his way down the hall.

An annoyingly long silence followed.

"You… wanted to leave the team? To get away from me?"

"But I didn't…" She said feeling tears sting at her eyes.

"But you lied to me… because you changed your mind at the last minute… then you told that cat, not to tell me?" He pointed to where Panther had gone.

"I didn't want to hurt you… I didn't want you to…" She just looked down not able to meet his gaze anymore.

Krystal was standing perfectly still her eyes wide, feeling the pain she had just inflicted on the girl who had been so nice to her with no strings attached in her darkest moments.

Wolf looked down at his wife from his great height.

"You know… I may not tell you absolutely everything Trisha, but I have never lied to you." Wolf said in a soft tone, not sure what he was feeling exactly. It wasn't anger… he wasn't sad…

Without another word in the room he turned away and walked down the hall… back to finish fixing his cycle.

"Billie I… I didn't think Panther would turn that way." Krystal said, quickly approaching her friend.

"It's nobody's fault but mine." Billie said wiping her eyes dry.

Then they both heard a dinging kind of noise from a computer behind them.

"Mail…" Billie sniffed composing herself.

As she walked over Krystal spoke out feeling terrible:

"I apopola-"

"It's okay Blue, an awkward scene is required to become a full member…" Billie faked a laugh as she sat at the computer and brought up the light keyboard.

"Welcome to Star Wolf…" She breathed out heavily checking the job e-mail.

"What is it?" Krystal pressed coming up behind Billie.

"It's that weird owl… He wants us to pick up a dead drop on Macbeth." Billie said it as if it were a question.

"Macbeth?" Krystal said leaning in. "But… that place is practically a war zone." She said thinking back.

"Yeah… would you go tell Wolf?" Billie said. "I'm gonna take a shower and get dressed." Feeling some form of old melancholy set in Billie stood up and made her way down the hall.

"Kursed turned out to be a very good choice…" Krystal said, feeling now as though everything she got near was doomed to turn to crap.

* * *

><p>Wolf finally began putting his cycle back together, and while doing so managed to isolate what had been weighing him down. It was not something he was used to feeling: he was afraid.<p>

He didn't like it.

"Uhm Wolf?" he heard a small feminine voice behind him.

He looked at the blue vixen standing in the doorway, she looked nervous.

"What?" Was all he could manage to say.


	6. Chapter 6

**Whew! Lots of stuff guys lots of stuuuuff... Firstly I would like to address the lovely who asked what I think of the voice actors shifting back to Star Fox 64. I honestly have no problem with this... I never really preferred one voice to another; which is why you may notice I don't always take the time to write in Wolf's accent, in fact in quotes from his previous games I hear the actor they used in that game as I proofread. But no matter what the future holds for Star Fox the Wolf in my head and in my stories will always be the badass from Brawl! LOL While on that subject I did say I was extremely angry at Nintendo for cutting Wolf from Smash Bros. Wii U, and then I asked them to pull something out of their ass to get back into my good graces. Fucking Mewtwo is back! (I do enjoy the pokemon franchise and used Mewtwo a lot in Melee.) OH NINTENDO, you are forgiven. *Hugs the Nintendo logo***

**Now finally down to business; the reason this chapter is late is because I have been swamped and aggravated setting up my DeviantArt account for this! That's right all art from these stories and Star Fox cannon too! Much more to come; really guys go check it out from the link on my page: I take requests and everything. I will also be using DevianArt to keep you guys up to speed in between chapters, and stories. Have added many more ideas to my profile on here as well. And further more will be doing visual character profiles for all original and cannon characters on there very soon, I hope you guys enjoy it!**

**The next chapter will be longer and pretty much all action: this bit was mainly to finish laying out the scene; this will be a very, very long and intricate story so please be patient with meh... And I thank you all!**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER 6<p>

Wolf looked at the blue vixen standing doorway, she looked nervous.

"What?" Was all he could manage to say.

"Uhh, Billie said we have a job." She pointed with her thumb behind her as she stepped forward.

"When?" Wolf gruffed looking back down.

"I'm not sure she just said to tell you…"

"Pfft." Wolf shook his head.

Krystal picked up on his feelings though, he was angry Billie wouldn't tell him face to face after what happened. Still a just a bit shy about invading people's privacy she twiddled with her index fingers wondering if she should intervene at all. But for as much anger she could sense radiating from him, she also felt much affection; it was the same bubbly and warm energy she would often feel when standing in front of Fox. Wolf however seemed much better at hiding the expressions of these feelings on his face.

"You know…" She began timidly. But she still tried to stifle Krystal down into Kursed's more self-assured attitude.

"Billie runs away; when she doesn't know what to do. That's what she's always done." Krystal carefully began looking through memories that were not her own.

"And you don't want her to do that now, after everything that's happened. And I know you are feeling a loss of control as far as your team goes, Fox was too but you-"

"Don't ever compare him to me!" Wolf whipped around glaring her down in a way that meant danger to many who had encountered his temper in the past.

"Then stop letting your team fall apart!" Krystal shot back in an aggressive way no one would expect from her, but Kursed was another story.

Wolf lowered his glare to the floor.

"If you want to prove how much better you are than that idiot; get your shit together and act like a leader. Not like a damn child!"

"Forgot McCloud had hired a psychic…" He said walking to her side.

"I can see why he let yah go; it's annoying _Blue_." He sneered in her face then proceeded to walk off.

"The name is Kursed!" She called after him angrily.

"Ah save it for the mission!" He spat back not turning around.

She was a bit taken aback by that; did this mean she was officially part of the team?

* * *

><p>Billie stood amongst the steam with her eyes closed; letting the hot water soothe the skin under her freshly cleansed fur. She knew she shouldn't have been standing there so long as they only had so much water in the pumps before they would have to fetch more snow: but she was really enjoying the white noise.<p>

She opened her eyes however when she heard the subtle "Shh" of the door sliding open.

"Hello?" She asked out into the steam while her hands turned the water off.

She jumped as a clawed hand mashed the curtain around the oval shaped rod above and out of view.

"You owe me an apology girly. And I _will _have it." Wolf furrowed his eyebrows and stared her right in the eyes.

"Honey you're not a subtle man…" She teased and reached for a towel.

"This aint foreplay; I just want yah to admit that you're through with that little disappearing act that you became so fond of."

Billie patted her face dry and then stepped out of the shower; wrapping herself up as she dripped.

"You already know I am; what's gotten into you?"

"Then why did you tell that damn cat? Why was I the last to know?"

"That's what this is about isn't it? You aren't mad that I lied; you are mad that I told someone else instead of telling you." Billie huffed into the mirror.

"You were gonna just walk away without tellin' me." He said it loudly but he wasn't really yelling.

"But I didn't." She said it looking at his reflection with soft eyes.

Wolf became quiet.

"You aren't yelling; and therefore I know you can't be _that_ angry… What is this really about?" She turned to him and leaned back on the sink.

"She compared me to fuckin' McCloud!" Wolf yelled tossing a hand towards the door.

"Oh, why would that bother you?" Billie said with a sarcastic smile.

"Don't get cheeky… But, what if Star Wolf starts to drift like that? And I aint man enough to pull it together… What if I'm no better than that vulp?" He spat the words at the ground as if they tasted bad to say.

"Fox… The center of the shrubbery maze…" She teased at him.

"Oh shut it." He growled.

Billie just laughed.

"You let yourself get so worked up over nothing… I guess I have to blame the testosterone. You aren't Fox…" She slid her necklace on over her head and proceeded to pat herself dry all over.

"You aren't him, and I'm not the girl you dumped. I'm the one you married; and I'm still here. Panther is a womanizing dick-bag and Leon is just having personal issues: so let's not turn this into some horrible, drama driven, teen romance bit of dribble okay?"

Suddenly Wolf felt his muscles relax, he hadn't even realized he was so tense.

"And what's more; you have another team member you get to boss around, one who can read minds... I think you're really not seeing the beauty to this." She shrugged.

Wolf felt a familiar kind of smirk tug at his lips.

"You know I think I just remembered why I wanna keep you around so bad." He stepped towards her.

She just looked up at him with a 'Yeah I'm always right' look of triumph on her face.

Seeing Billie naked was not the luxury it once was; since they had silenced one old and scary jackal three years ago Wolf found himself able to see right through her shadow lace with relative ease. And during the physical act of sex itself they no longer experienced lapses in time only to have the event forgotten the next day.

Throughout their years together Wolf found that one of the best aspects of sex with Billie, wasn't the act itself or even the sweet momentary release near the end. No it was the anticipation; because that could last anywhere from a few moments to a few hours. It was a game they liked to play to see who could hold out the longest before each and every time, and they had been known to get a little viscous with it at times.

Billie tugged his beard to slowly bring his face down to her level, she smelled fresh and clean; her pheromones mixed up with the steam in his nostrils to create an agonizing feeling of impatience. In this tug of war she usually won, and just as she was opening her mouth, just to taunt him and for no other reason- damn her- an annoying chime rung out from behind her. And as quickly as she had been teasing him, she pulled her face away and picked up her headgear.

"Oh hey Lu. How bad is _your_ hangover?" Billie strutted out of the room knowing she had won this round, leaving Wolf alone and frustrated.

But still: she knew exactly how to put him at ease, maybe she was good for him… He shook his head: "Fuck me…" He mumbled.

He always fell for that one. And what's worse: now he had two women on his team, adding Billie way back when had caused him enough grief.

* * *

><p>"Whoa, calm down I can't understand you when you slur like that." Billie said slinging her underwear on in the bedroom.<p>

"I can't stop! I can't slow down! This is terrible." Lucy exclaimed in the parking lot outside of her apartment.

"Well just listen, are you calm?" Billie's voice rang over the line.

"I'm listening." Lucy said aggravated.

"How much of last night do you remember?"

"Well I don't know! I remember… uhm we were shopping for ship parts and then you saw they had a joogee fruit jello-shot contest at that little pub and then… We uhhh. FUCK!" Lucy shouted up as her breath rose to the sun in the Fichinan air.

"They had a contest?" Billie asked.

"I don't think I have ever been this hung-over... Oh if Papa knew." Lucy did a brisk jog back to her apartment building.

"Calm down I'm sure we left your car somewhere we knew you would recall." Lucy could hear Billie's reassuring words but they weren't helping her at all.

"Did I enter the contest?" She heard Billie's voice chime after a long silence.

"Does it matter?!" Lucy shrieked as she opened her apartment door.

"Well…"

"Oh and by the way; you may not wish to ride that cycle in Fichina City for a while, I saw on the news police are looking for the phantom cycle that knocked over three street signs and took out the fence at the Fichinan flight academy."

"OOOOOH YEAH." Billie said remembering how the dents got there.

"We left your car in the parking lot at the school!"

"What? WHY?" Lucy squealed trying to find her work tablet.

"So you wouldn't have to drive there! Oh…" They both stopped and gave themselves a slow facepalm.

"I am never drinking with you again…" Lucy said.

"Yeah; I'm never drinking with me again either." Billie stopped to try and remember something… all she got was a few blurs of white that she assumed were snow flurries.

"So how is Krystal?" Lucy asked catching her breath, falling to her velvet sofa.

"She goes by Kursed now… or some shit. She's really bouncing back nicely." Billie said rifling through her bottom drawer.

"No… sweetie she's not." Lucy retorted.

"What do you mean?" Billie asked, being very naïve in the topic of romance.

As Krystal moved through the base, Lucy and Billie continued their conversation;

Lucy: all she did while you had your back turned… and when you were in that stupid contest was talk about Fox.

Billie: So?

Krystal walked up to the Cloud-Runner, she had affectionately named it after the group of Dinosaurs on Sauria who had helped her in one of her darkest hours. The vixen sat in the cockpit remembering all that there was in this machine to remember.

Lucy: She talked about him constantly; even though she had nothing nice to say he was obviously all that was on her mind all day… Clearly she is still in a great deal of pain.

Billie: Well yeah… but that doesn't mean that she still… Does she still love him? Even after what he did?

Lucy: Yes.

Krystal looked at her pendant on the dash, it was gold in the shape of a triangle with a large clear gem inlaid to that shape. She had worn it the very first time she met Fox; and for months after joining his team. It was a Cerinian heirloom; although its purpose was strictly cosmetic. When she picked it up; it began to let off a glow and change in color; it was a calming aqua color like her eyes.

Lucy: I highly suspect the only reason she is trying to act so tough… and even put on a different persona is just her trying to cope with the pain. Or maybe try to not feel it at all.

Billie: And the reason she joined us was just to feel close to Fox still?

Lucy: Maybe…

Krystal had given the gem to Fox once to hold, it had become a deep forest green whilst in his hands; she remembered it looking so pretty. And she also remembered him kissing him for the first time shortly after. She clutched the gem in her palm so tightly it hurt prodding up against her skin; and then she put her fists on the side of her head and hung it to cry.

Lucy: Or maybe she's trying to get back at him.

Billie: If that were the case… then she's counting on us to run into him.

Lucy: She knows how much Wolf and Fox hate each other… Please keep an eye on her Killer Queen. Make sure she doesn't do anything too stupid.

Billie: Like try to seduce a stupid cat, just to make Fox hurt?

Lucy: That is certainly on the list…

Billie: Maybe we should try and find Fox…

Lucy: The wound is too fresh, and I have no idea where he's gone. So just-

Billie: Keep an eye on her.

Lucy: Knew I could count on you. I gotta go; and find my car.

Billie: Sorry again about that. Hehe…

* * *

><p>Dry and fully dressed Billie jogged to the lounge and sat in front of a small round plastic item with a lens on top and to one side. Upon pressing her finger to the power button the top illuminated a projected screen, and the bottom a keyboard on the flat surface of the stone.<p>

She typed away at the computer, trying to dig up anything she could find on Macbeth. For as long as she had been in Lylat, she had never once been to Macbeth and she hated going in blind.

"Where is everybody?" Billie heard a raspy voice call from behind.

"Leon!" She whipped around and stood up.

"Yes, I am the great Leon." He said with his usual proud and unsettling smirk.

"Where were you? We thought… uhm."

"I had an errand to run, why?" He asked looking a bit confused.

"Uh, I…" Billie wondered what to say after what Wolf had told her earlier.

"I'm glad you're back." She said honestly.

"I was only gone for a few hours." He said through his narrow gaze.

"Any particular reason that the Star Fox vixen is still here?" He pressed on looking at Billie; she was in combat gear.

"Uhm, we are actually going to have a briefing soo-"

"Now." They both turned to look their boss pulling a fingerless glove over his large claws.

"Where were you?" He asked quickly nodding at Leon.

"Gathering valuable intel." Leon shot back tossing a jump drive at Wolf.

He caught it without even flinching, and then his eyes darted down to it.

"You ever heard of the Hot-Rodders?" Leon smiled wide to Wolf.

"What's that, some boy band?" Wolf chuckled.

"It's a rather interesting group of mercenaries, actually."

"_That's_ what you were doing?" Wolf's head slanted to the side a bit.

"Why do you guys keep finding this surprising?" Leon asked looking back and forth between the two.

"Krystal is our newest member!" Billie changed the subject loudly.

"So, she's on the payroll then?" Leon inquired to Wolf.

"I'm afraid so…" He said lowly tucking the jump drive into his pants pocket.

"So yer wearing _those_ boots eh?" Wolf's eyes fell on Billie's thigh high combat boots, they buttoned up the side and strapped onto her belt.

"Shut up." She said quickly.

* * *

><p>Several minutes later they were all sitting in the round about couch; a bit awkwardly at that. Not only was Leon still wary of Krystal after what she had done to Billie a day ago but Billie was giving Panther the cold shoulder; still feeling the knife he had placed in her back.<p>

Krystal sitting arms crossed; composed as a statue in the new pink and black catsuit she had picked out; Billie had even given her some plasma guards for her shoulders elbows and knees. They were prototypes though so they maintained a flat grey color, and she too was trying to avoid Panther's stare. Everyone's actually…

"Who hasn't been to Macbeth?" Wolf said commanding everyone's attention.

Both Panther and Billie raised their hands.

"What'd you do there?" He nodded to Krystal.

"Not much; we never landed on the surface… we simply went into low orbit to gather some of the Venom Army's old satellites that were no longer in use. The team was tasked with gathering old Venom military hardware to turn into the government…" She looked down in memory, and then got very quiet.

"Humph… so no one but me an Leon got any experience… Wonderful." He mumbled under his breath getting up.

"What do we need experience for? It's just another dead drop…" Panther mumbled resting his face on his hand and elbow on his knee.

"No, this is different." Leon said before Wolf could.

"Andross used Macbeth for the greater deal of his productions… actually it is almost certain that our Wolfens are made completely from materials dug up there. But it goes much farther than that even today." Leon continued as Wolf looked through the order on his e-patch.

"He's right…" Wolf finally spoke.

"Even after the Venom army dispersed there were companies that set their eyes on Macbeth. And even though the planet is hollow it maintained its integrity and rich mineral deposits… Throughout the years a shit ton of CEO's practically went to war over territory; and the government is usually fishing around there for some reason or another." He said looking to Krystal.

"Yeah, and then it gets even better!" Leon cut in.

"To this day most of the planet is still off limits; because of all Andross's old factories, bases and traps. Setting foot outside of government designated mining areas is practically suicide. A lot of psychos and trash from Lylat like to hang out in these places and-"

"And that's exactly where we are headin'." Wolf cut back into Leon's bit.

"This sound delightful…" Panther said still looking rather bored.

"Oh that aint the fun part yet, we get to go in on foot." Wolf finished looking around at his team.

Everyone was silently contemplating, what was the worst thing that could possibly be waiting for them there?

"Suit up." Wolf said zipping up his plasma vest.

* * *

><p>Krystal strapped some grenades to her belt and looked further across the weapons rack: she was unsure about what to expect… so that was no help in weapon choice.<p>

"Hey Blue, I think you'll like this one." Billie said walking up to her holding a black cuff.

"What is it?"

"You wear it on your tail like that…" Billie said strapping it to the end of her tail.

"I designed it for Leon but he never wore it…" Billie admitted.

Sensing already what Billie wanted to ask her she flicked her tail with a bit of force. Four menacing curved blades shot from the center.

"Wow, that's a nice feature." Krystal marveled.

"Yeah, I figured you liked that tail jewelry so, I refit it."

"Thanks. Do you have anything in way of a staff?" She asked flicking the blades back in.

"A staff… hmm, I don't think so but that is a neat idea." Billie said letting her technical mind wander.

"I would just like to rely on my Malikendo if I get cornered."

"Mali what?"

"It was a strict but freeform martial art practiced and jealously guarded by the Wolfen tribes of Cerinia. I was taught how to use it from the time I was small; before I was willed fathers staff…" Krystal clamped her mouth shut hard realizing she was saying too much.

"Sounds neat." Billie said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Krystal gave an awkward smile; surprised again at Billie's attitude towards her.

"But… why don't you try this" Billie said pulling a rifle off of the wall.

"It fires three rounds in one shot; it's good for long and short range because of its size." She held it out looking through the scope.

"And it's kind of long like a staff with a bayonet at the end so; you can use your imagination. Use these to reload." Billie finished handing her a strap with strange cubes on it.

And then Billie grabbed a very strange looking sniper rifle and strapped it to her back.

"Also, if you feel like really making a hole in someone… see if you can carry this." Billie heaved a grenade launcher towards her.

"Can't ever have too many grenades." She winked and slung a heavy machine gun over her shoulder.

Billie made her way out to the flight deck, Panther glanced at her from his ships monitor lighting up from the flight deck floor; everyone checking their ships systems. Billie didn't even pretend to care he was standing there, not caring to acknowledge the sting of betrayal.

"What in grims name are you doing?" She called to Wolf who was sitting in her cockpit loading a magazine into his machine gun.

"Gettin' ready to fly to Macbeth." He said like it was obvious.

"Ahem?" Billie sounded pissed looking at him in her baby's seat.

"Oh we're sharing this ride." He chuckled.

"But why?" She said dropping her heavy gun bending her ears back.

"Because we need to keep a low profile; and your ships is bigger."

Billie made a very unhappy face at him as he shouted down to Krystal entering the room.

"Newbie! You wanna share with Panther or Leon?"

"Are those my only choices?" She shrugged sarcastically.

Actually Krystal would prefer not to have to be faced down with her ship, like she had earlier.

"I swear I shall keep you safe with everything I am." Panther said with a slight bow.

Krystal sighed and made way for the Black Rose.

Leon smiled wide in his cockpit glad to have it to himself.

"Forgot I programmed that in…" Billie said as Wolf's retina scan started her ship.

"Have a seat…" He smirked up to her patting his lap.

"I've created a monster…" Billie mumbled plopping down on him.

The three pilots checked in; and then their vessels made a screech for the sky above.

Krystal chose to sit behind Panther in the cockpit, feeling the weapons press at her back from behind.

"Just keep your breathing light hun." Panther said turning on the oxygen as the black veil of space surrounded them.

"Sure." She said lightly and then let his thoughts pry at her.

He was certainly feeling something genuine, but it was streaked by something dark that felt unfamiliar to her.

Wolf piloted, his long arms reached around Billie. She simply laid her head back on his shoulder and tried to keep her breathing low to conserve oxygen.

The estranged team was quiet, each one wrapped up in thoughts of recent events; each one feeling a different kind of nagging feeling eating away at them. Were they really up for a mission like this in whilst in this state?

In the mercenary game it didn't mean dick if you were ready or not; you had to get out there and shoot people before they shot you.


	7. Chapter 7

**Well guys here it is! I had originally planned for the entire Macbeth mission to be in one chapter but things are happening; namely my computer is acting like a bitch. I won't bore you with the details but I'm also finding myself a very busy bee on my DeviantArt account. I shall be keeping you updated with the status of chapter 8 from there... If my computer cooperates.**

**But the real reason this comes to you early is because I didn't want to leave you with no updates this month; it just wouldn't feel right. Anyways I'm trying to find the right balance here; giving you guys awesome chapters while also not rushing it along just to get it published like I did with Billie and the Big Bad Wolf.**

**So enjoy this you guys; I worked hard on it so ya' know reviews are always nice... when I get alot of them it's like Christmas! But try and talk about the story you know so few actually critique me and I like critiques guys. **

**Go to DeviantArt and critique my art for this too; there is also voting on there as well for bios and such. Anyways enough of that I'll let you read.**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER 7<p>

"Attention unidentified aircrafts; this is restricted flight space. Please turn around now or we will be forced to take defensive measures." A metallic voice rung through all three Star Wolf crafts.

"Seems they don't want our company…" Panther smoothly spoke through their chat windows.

"Keep formation up until the stratosphere is broken." Wolf said admiring how smooth Billie's turning wheel was, everything here was definitely custom that's for sure; in fact he couldn't even read her monitors to the right and left. It looked like another language.

Billie reached behind him and grabbed her sniper rifle. It looked strange; there was no room for a magazine, and there was no trigger. It was a scope, on top of a long sleek red barrel. It harbored two leather handle grips the one closest to the butt of the gun had a strange clear core at its center.

"Just tell me when we get there…" She yawned lying back on his torso.

"Attention unidentified aircrafts; this is your last warning. Turn around now or we will be forced to take defensive measures."

"Alright let's break." Wolf commanded over the chat.

The three individual ships spanned out over the dull gray of the planet's surface below. Everything still looked rounded and far from sight below as the Black Rose made a screeching slice down towards the round crust.

"They have a squad on their way already." Krystal said out of her sixth sense.

"Yes; that is why Wolf planned for us to separate." Panther assured her.

"See you there!" Leon said over chat as he pulled up towards the now visibly approaching government drones.

The government did not use real pilots over the surface of this planet; there had been too many fatalities. And the ruins here that weren't filled to the teeth with traps were filled with lowlifes.

"What is going on?" Krystal said watching Leon engage the drones.

"Wolf's plan… step one distraction." Panther purred to his backseat driver.

As the Rainbow Delta approached the Arwing modeled drones, a large, menacing smile cracked the pilots face in half. Leon pulled back on his gravity breaks and aimed his straight laser right at the back of one straight through the burning exhaust; causing it to explode. The remains of the wreck flickered and flared as they fell down through the sky streaking it with ebony smoke. The other three government drones immediately deemed his ship to be their largest threat as he led them on a chase in the opposite direction of his comrades.

"Step two… safe points." Panther nodded over chat and closed it for a final time.

The Black Rose and Billie's baby were a bit too close for comfort to the barren grey surface of Macbeth now; and it was here that they pulled up and spanned away from each other. Krystal could feel Panther and herself drifting farther and farther away from everyone as a strange runic sight came into view.

"What is that?" She questioned looking at the run down, dusty and flat out dismal structures ahead.

"All that there is to see outside of government regulated areas…" He smiled as they flew on.

* * *

><p>"So why does Leon always get to be the distraction?" Billie laughed standing up off of Wolf and stretching her back out.<p>

"He's got kind of a knack for it…" Wolf gruffed wondering if that Casanova wannbe would be able to focus near Blue.

"Ask myself the same question…" He mumbled under his breath watching Billie bend over in those boots he was so fond of, her leather gear hugging her rear end in a way that made him want to stare.

"What?" She asked through big eyes coming back up with a heavy machine gun.

"Nuthin…" He looked down to her plasma proofed shirt; the plates on the sides hugged her like a corset… leading down from her shoulder guards to the wrist length gloves that only covered her thumb and index fingers.

"You sure this'll be okay here?" She said looking at the sun streaming down from the gaping hole in the rock above them.

Wolf had landed in some abandoned mine that had collapsed long ago; vegetation already started to reclaim the area they were in, saplings sprung out from the black and grey soil beneath their feet. The gradual slope that led out was laced with strange reddish ivy that Billie had never seen before, and the skeleton of a once very large building was what the sun streamed through above them which harbored a very thick layer of that same ivy. Actually it was kind of beautiful… Billie hadn't expected that at all. But one thing she did notice, was that for all the plant life that was here… there were no manner of lower animals anywhere… it was an eerie kind of silence that was only broken up by the wind howling by.

Wolf never answered her question, he grabbed some chunks of the moss like red ivy and shrouded the wings of her baby in them and then stepped back seeing how well it was hidden from view.

"Keep your eyes peeled…" He said removing the heavy burden of her machine gun from her hands.

"You're never alone on Macbeth…" His eyes surveyed the area carefully as he loaded a chain of bullets into the weapon.

The two figures made their way up the ivy path into the light; a pair of black eyes watched them go from the shadows of the ruined building that had just been above them.

* * *

><p>"And then there was one…" Leon's voice rang out a bit overzealously.<p>

The drone tailed him over the barren, dismal valley below as cloud cover moved in overhead; against the grey ground the bleak sky almost made everything look as if it were in black and white. Leon pondered whether or not it would be wise to drop a bomb… He didn't know if he would need it later and he didn't care to draw more drones down. But he was far enough away from a government zone to avoid that sort of attention. Problem was… he didn't know who else was here… and on this planet there was always somebody.

Leon could guess that since these drones had no real, or at least no real advanced AI to speak of that it would maintain a lock on the Rainbow Delta. He mulled something over in his head for a moment… but just a moment before pulling a black scarf up over his face to keep himself hidden from that things camera; and then strapped two large twin knives over his fingers through loops in their handles and pulled up in a summersault.

His canopy opened and as he fell through the air the visible green of his spines, head and tail dulled out to a musky brown. The flight suit he wore today had stiff black plasma guards here and there among the tight bluish leather. His frame landed on the drone's electronic eye starting at the unknown assailant through the canopy. Arching his form in a practiced stance he sent his knifed fist through the camera's eye; shattering glass this way and that. Blinded but still functional it navigated towards his Wolfen. Climbing over the side quickly like the lizard he was he found his way to the gravity brakes; slashing his blades with expert timing at the connecting cords repeatedly saw them disabled, from here all he had to do was encourage it to go down. And with a fwip of his headgear he commanded his own vessel to do just that. The drone went downwards after it, but with no camera could not see the danger of the uneven rock strata.

Wolf looked up as he saw a huge explosion way out in the distance.

"What was that?" Billie asked joining him in watching from the ivy path they had just emerged from.

"I don't know… but I've got a hunch." His eye narrowed as his e-patch scanned around the ruins that looked as though they were a town once. There were dunes here and there… Wolf grimaced, they were either piles of old mining materials; or traps of some kind. He was familiar with several kinds of traps that had been common on Titania and Venom; but honestly this was his first time actually walking on Macbeth's surface.

As the explosion in the distance grew smaller he continued to survey his surroundings. All that was left of this place really was skeletons of buildings and walls that stood alone… although you could tell they had once been part of something much larger. Lucky for them this didn't seem to be a place where squatters hung about however, or maybe there was a reason for that.

This place was Wolf's best definition of a ghost, the remnants of the empire he once served under standing there almost mocking him; that everything he was a part of was doomed to crumble. A part of his past he wasn't particularly proud of was being a Venom military member… that seemed to be the case more and more with different parts of the past he had lived.

"Stay on your toes…" he gruffed over to Billie.

Nodding, she pulled the strangely red sniper rifle off of her back and stepped forward.

* * *

><p>"So does Wolf always expect you to be familiar with his gameplan with so little info like this?" Krystal asked sounding aggravated as they emerged from an old warehouse.<p>

The top had fallen in long ago, and Panther had landed his craft within before they made their way out of the front into the city. He had emerged with her in her pink gear and in stark contrast sported a black flight suit that had red plasma guards on the muscles; and in a true tip of the hat to hits owner little red rose patters could be seen near the raised collar and the glove and boot lines. There were large square goggles neatly crowning his head with red frames that really set the whole look off.

"More or less… but the longer you are here the more you will appreciate it." Panther said pulling out some traditional 12 round pistols.

"Well you truly are a romantic." Krystal laughed at him.

"Kursed my sweet; you have no idea…" He mumbled sliding magazines in.

As the bleakness of the sky moved in to block out their sun they moved carefully forward.

"So what exactly is there to appreciate about this? Perhaps I was too spoiled on Star Fox." She said nervously gripping her rifle.

"Well for one thing; there is a lot of freedom in the way you get to work. For example; the two of us are alone… here in the middle of these lonely ruins. All Wolf expects of us is to get to the rendezvous point on time. Anything done in between is our call…" She watched him watching her with that stare he had trademarked.

"Lonley…" She muttered.

The breeze blew by lifting up red and brown foliage from the surrounding overgrowth; and blew it past them with a loud shutter.

"That's one word for it…" Krystal could hear this place's history, a sad history almost in whispers.

It was as if the ground was crying out for someone; anyone who was still left to hear it… there was a bad past here. Her ears twitched and she turned to see some train tracks. Panther watched her carefully, wondering what that telepathy of hers was picking up in a place like this.

She could almost formulate words from this place's history, a history of pain:

'Where have they all gone… the ones who tamed the elements?'

'Cold, it is always so cold… Time has lost all meaning.'

Cerinians were taught from a young age to listen to their planet; to their home. To always remember they could rely on the energy that dwelled within the good ground. These Lylatians seemed out of touch with such things and aimed their focus purely at technology… It moved something in Krystal, in a way she didn't care for.

Then she quickly whipped around.

"What is it?" Panther inquired.

"There's… a pulse. Something alive…" She looked around for a moment.

And then she whipped her rifle upwards yelling: "HOSTELS!"

* * *

><p>"We got hostels!" Billie cried hurling a grenade towards a large flying machine.<p>

Although it looked rather old and outdated it still packed a punch with its small and rapid laser fire; that burned holes into the ground that seemed to burn like coal. In fact the machines make looked familiar, not only did it give her flashbacks to the Aparoids but the colors of its chipped paint… reminded her of the Red Fang.

"What did you do?!" Wolf yelled looking at the Venomian booby trap.

The explosion from the grenade she had chucked drowned out the sound however.

"It brought friends!" She yelled to him looking through her scope; in the next instant her hand grew black stripes.

The core in the handle of her sniper charged with shadow lace; just as it was about to burst open; a skinny super fast shot of it shot out of the slender red barrel; piercing the core of one of the creatures that was still at a distance. She then ran for cover as Wolf opened fire with the heavy machine gun through the grey smoke that the grenade had left after reducing the first to ash.

But more and more rose upwards; crumbling through the rigid crust like the dead returning to haunt the living.

'Why don't they come after me? Why are they so focused on him?' Billie's thought jabbed at her brain.

Everyone knew the first thing to go after on the battlefield was the sneaky sniper; before he took out everyone from a far position.

Wolf stepped back slowly continuing fire; waiting for his opportunity as the machines emerged from the dirt from what he guessed were still intact ground traps Andross's army had left behind. Billie perched herself on top of what was left of a wall, using her sniper to take out the bots closing in on Wolf.

"And there it is." He said dropping the gun.

He ran up on one and activated his laser shielding; a loud zap popped in his ears as the things circlets fried over him. Arching his leg up in a scissor kick; his boot slammed it into the one behind it.

And then before he knew it he could hear pops; followed by screeching metal all around him as Billie sniped the spares.

"I don't understand…" He gasped stepping away from the smoke.

"What happened? We were so careful" Billie yelled from her wall.

"We didn't set off any traps." He gruffed loudly… then he scanned the area with his e-patch again.

They both stood still, like statues among the ruins; shadows jumped and danced around them ominously among the strange skeleton buildings as the clouds moved quickly overhead on the wind. This place was like a graveyard; everything was silent and dead; some things claimed to be undead even like those weakened machines left behind from a forgotten and distant empire. But like a graveyard there was an eerie beauty as well… Wolf and Leon's pasts could be found resting here among the dead and then:

"What?" He gasped; for a moment it picked up a third heartbeat… but then it fizzled out accompanied by static in his vision.

The static cleared and there was just Billie's heartbeat once again.

'I don't like this.' He thought as Billie jogged up to him.

"So those were Andross's huh?"

He just nodded.

"They reminded me of the Aparoids… either he was ahead of his time or he already knew about them."

"Both… probably." Wolf said dismissively.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling Sarggasso… we can't walk."

"Why not? We handled it." She snarked up at him.

"We are being observed." He said quietly.

Billie looked around non-chalantly.

"I told you; you are never alone on this damn rock."

"Lord O'Donnell; what do you require sir?"

"How up to date is the Transmission system there?" He asked.


End file.
